Rain, Fire and a Night Fury
by invisiblewing
Summary: A loose adaptation of "When Lightning Strikes"
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: Thanks to Tasermon's Partner for suggesting this idea.**

_**Riders of Berk**_** and "When Lightning Strikes" belong to Dreamworks.**

**This story is rated T for graphic descriptions. No profanity.**

**Comments, suggestions and reviews are always welcome. Thanks for reading!**

* * *

"Another one?" Gobber asked.

"Looks like it," my dad said to him.

Being flying creatures, the dragons around Berk had decided the rooftops were excellent perches. They were, except for one thing. A standard rooftop was never gonna be able to hold anything larger than Toothless. Several roofs around the village had dragon-shaped holes in them. I thought it was kinda humorous, seeing these caricatures embedded in rooftops.

"All right, but the more I've got to fix, the longer it'll take," Gobber said back. "I think I'll need your help on this one, Hiccup."

"Um," I started. "You'd better recruit a whole lot more than us two."

"And why is that?" he asked.

"It looks like we're getting rain tonight."

"How can you tell?" my dad asked.

"Look west," I said matter-of-factly. There was a dark, ominous cloud in the distance. Normally, these storms were slow-moving beasts, which was both good and bad. Good because they took a long time to get here. Bad because once they got here, they stayed for a while.

"If you can hear me, meet in the plaza right now!" my dad shouted to the entire village. Within a minute or so, several doors opened and people came filing out toward us. Being chief meant you had some influence, even if it was on a whim. People murmured as they crowded around Gobber, me and my dad. "Everyone, please listen because we don't have a lot of time. We're all going to help in this. Get all the supplies you can find and help us patch these roofs. We need to get this done by sunset."

There was a general murmur of consent as the crowd dispersed. Most people began looking for supplies, which included boards, hammers, nails and pitch. And, as usual, there was a minority who didn't want to help. Because their houses weren't touched. They stood there in defiance, looking at my dad. And by "they," I meant just one person. Mildew. He was irritating enough to everyone in Berk that we forced him to live on the outskirts of town. Where he had plenty of company with himself.

"I'm not moving, Stoick," he said defiantly with a guttural rasp. Even the sound of his voice was irritating to me. I couldn't stand a thing about him. Every group of people had one of these yay-hoos. The kind of person you just want to hit because he'd look better with an unrecognizable face. Yeah, that was Mildew. A bona fide louse.

"Oh, good!" I said before my dad could do anything. My dad and Mildew looked at me quizzically, which is exactly what I wanted. Mildew's attention where it shouldn't have been. I waited for a brief second, trying to time it just right. "Well, if you're not gonna move yourself, the wood they're carrying will do it for you." I glanced to my left.

"Huh?" Mildew asked, like a yak who was half-asleep. Just as he turned his head to his right, Gobber rammed into him with a long plank at walking speed. Mildew grunted in pain as the wood Gobber was carrying threw his balance, causing him to fall.

"Mildew, if you're not gonna do anything, just leave!" Gobber shouted.

"I believe I will," he said with a groan as he got up, which made his voice sound even more irritating. "But you know you're just going to have to fix all these roofs again in the future." He slowly turned like he was five hundred years old and limped back toward his home, his dumb pet sheep, Fungus, in tow.

After he got out of earshot, I turned to my dad. "Can we _please_ ship him somewhere other than here?" I begged.

My dad sighed. "No. I don't like him any more than you do, Hiccup."

"Seriously, how does he earn his keep here?" I asked.

"Cabbage," Gobber said matter-of-factly as he continued walking. That was something I could always count on from him: being literal.

"All he ever does is try to get Toothless killed," I said as if Gobber hadn't even mentioned anything. "And nobody does a thing about it. I think he makes a hobby of taking all of his anger out on me. Just because I'm Hiccup, the little runt who had a stupid idea one day..."

"All right, Hiccup, I get it," my dad said, turning toward me. I stopped immediately, knowing I had stepped across a line I shouldn't even have approached. "Just get over there and help Gobber." He had that tone in his voice that said his patience was wearing dangerously thin.

I sighed as I trudged over to Gobber's house. He already had a wooden ladder up to his roof, so I scaled it and began hammering boards over a large, roughly Gronckle-shaped hole. I knew if my frustration with Mildew got to my hands, I'd be repairing Gobber's roof by myself. So I took my time, trying to let the anger dissolve. After the boards were in place, I grabbed a bucket of pitch. Since I was the youngest person on this roof, Gobber asked me to apply the pitch, which translated to kneeling and bending down for a while. Something he couldn't do as well.

For what it was worth, I always felt coating a patch was the hardest part of fixing a roof. Because if you had one leak, all the water from a rainstorm would find that hole. And if you took too long, the pitch wouldn't set, meaning it was bound to wash away. I looked at the sky, noticing we had a few hours of daylight left. Should be okay.

I got down off of Gobber's roof and looked around the village. Houses were in different stages of being fixed, some complete and others just barely getting started. But it looked like we were gonna finish in time for a downpour. They happened a handful during the summers. Most of the time, the rain was accompanied by lightning, and we had storms run the gamut. Some had only one small flash somewhere in the clouds. Others gave a four-hour-long light show that made it look like daylight outside. We just had to see what this storm had for us.

* * *

"Well, it'll do for tonight," my dad said. He was sitting at our table with me and Gobber. Toothless was chowing down on a basket full of fish. I figured being in the chief's family kinda helped keep our house untouched. Because we were a good way from the plaza, where most of the dragons in Berk knew they could find food, our house generally stayed intact.

"Stoick, we can't just keep repairing the roofs. If this keeps up, we'll be out of supplies." It took him a long time to say those two sentences, so I guessed he didn't want to admit Mildew was right.

Outside, a light patter started, telling us the rain was here. Right on time. There was a low rumble in the distance, which wasn't Toothless because he was eating. The only other possibility was thunder. And I had a sinking feeling about it. Just something here wasn't quite right.

"Oh!" I shouted. And dashed toward the door. Opened it and saw only the occasional raindrop. While fixing roofs today, I had forgotten about our own. It wasn't broken, but I had forgotten to cover the skylight above my bed.

"Where are you going, son?" my dad asked. Toothless paused eating and looked at me curiously.

"Gotta-cover-the-skylight-be-right-back!" I said quickly, dashing outside. I slammed the door behind me and tore into the armory. Grabbed a large sheet of thick leather and a bucket of pitch. I knew it wasn't going to be a sure seal, but it would do in a pinch.

I got back home to find Gobber already on our roof. My dad was on the ground, waiting for my return. I heaved the leather in my dad's direction and watched as it fell miserably short. It was like throwing a piece of parchment without balling it up first. "Oh, come on," I mumbled. My dad grabbed the leather and climbed the ladder, where Gobber helped him hold the sheet in place. They had gotten the leather over the square hole in our roof when I reached them. I slathered pitch over each side, and we pressed the leather for about a minute to make sure it was gonna hold for at least some time.

There was another thunderclap, this time much closer. Instead of a rumble, it sounded like a distant explosion. A muffled roar came from inside our house. Toothless was worried because we had inexplicably left him alone when a storm was approaching. Not good. I figured he was gonna tear this house down if we left him for too long.

Thankfully, Gobber noticed Toothless also. "Go take care of your dragon," he said. "I'll take the bucket and ladder back to the armory." Without saying a word, I nodded and nearly jumped to the ground, barely touching the ladder. Dashed around to the front door and paused. Slowly opened the door, trying to avoid startling Toothless. Cautiously peeked inside, seeing my dragon's worried eyes. I opened the door a little wider and walked in. Closed it behind me quietly and walked over to Toothless.

"It's okay, bud," I said, stroking him underneath his chin. He gratefully closed his eyes with a low murmur. His way of saying thanks.

My dad and Gobber walked in a few minutes later. "Oh, good," my dad said. "Toothless didn't burn the place d-."

A loud thunderclap sounded, masking my dad's last word. Like it was an explosion at close range. Toothless shrieked and ran upstairs. This was his first thunderstorm with me, so I was feeling it out, trying to get a handle on how he was gonna react.

I followed him up the stairs and found him on his rock, shivering in fright. His eyes were wide in panic, unable to focus on anything for more than a second or two. There wasn't a whole lot I could do about the thunder, but I could at least keep him company. I sat down next to Toothless, and he edged closer to me, putting his head in my lap. He was quivering with an occasional sound each time he exhaled. Toothless was so scared he had almost no control over his breathing.

"It's gonna be fine, buddy," I said quietly. I stroked his head, making sure to tell him I was gonna stay here and protect him. And above all, I couldn't show any worry.

"HICCUP!" Gobber shouted from downstairs.

I looked at Toothless reassuringly, then peeked over the rafters at Gobber. He had the door open and was staring anxiously at something through the wall of water that had begun to crash down on Berk. "What!?" I shouted back over the din.

He motioned me toward the door. I walked downstairs to see what he was so interested in. Looked through the doorway to find a lone Deadly Nadder stumbling around. It was maybe twenty feet away and looked eerily similar to Stormfly.

"Isn't that Stormfly?" he asked. The dragon had a light blue back, just like Stormfly did. I caught sight of one of its eyes. The only word I could have described it with was "panic." Complete, gripping panic. If it was Stormfly, I wondered where Astrid was. Next to me, she was the Viking who was the most protective of her dragon. Surely she wouldn't let her dragon wander around during a rainstorm like this.

"I've gotta get her inside!" I shouted. But it was muffled by a dull flash and a moderately loud thunderclap. The lightning had probably hit somewhere on the island, but wasn't too close to the village.

Stormfly reared up slightly and roared at the top of her lungs as I ran outside, shouting her name. No response from her. She wasn't going to pay attention to anyone, at least not for now. Not when she was immobilized by fear. Stormfly wandered to her right in stupor just as another flash appeared with a thunderclap not a second later. My ears were ringing slightly after that explosion, but I had to get to Astrid's dragon.

I had stepped out into the rain just as she reared back again, wings spread completely out and shot a streamer of white fire straight upwards. Like her fire was gonna stop the storm in its tracks. I got another step when a blindingly bright white flash immobilized my feet. A shockwave rocketed through my chest, and my ears felt like they exploded from the pain. Normally, there's a lag between lightning and thunder. On this occasion, they were simultaneous. I quickly crouched and curled into a ball, gripping my ears, screaming in paralyzing agony. I couldn't hear a thing, not even my own voice.

My dad scooped me into his arms and dashed back inside. He slammed the door, which made absolutely no sound at all. A few dishes clattered from the shelves on the wall, adding to the silence of the moment.

Upstairs, I heard something about twenty seconds after that lightning bolt: a muffled roar from Toothless. I felt like I was underwater. My ears had lost most of their ability to hear, and movement just seemed like it was ten times slower for me. Toothless roared at the top of his lungs again, but for all I could tell, he was simply grunting. But I knew for certain he was scared because I heard it in his tone. He began jumping around upstairs, which echoed not only through the house but my head as well.

"Hiccup! Talk to me, son! Say something!"

Another thunderclap, this time from a distance.

"Come on, Hiccup!"

"D-Dad?"

"Oh, for Odin's sake, don't scare me like that again!"

"Wh-what happened?" I asked in a daze.

"You were ten feet from a lightning bolt! You seriously don't remember?"

Slowly, the room stopped swimming. My dad's worried face came into focus as Toothless continued his tantrum. I tried to wriggle away from him, only hearing what Toothless was doing. I was afraid of what he might do if I didn't show up soon.

"Lemme help Toothless!" I said, gaining full movement back. My hearing, though, was gonna take longer.

My dad let me go, and I tore up the stairs to find Toothless with his eyes wide in terror. I stayed at the end of the staircase, hoping he would see me. I knew better than to rush in and try to comfort him, because that would make me a target. I stood tall, trying my hardest not to show the pain in my ears or the fear I had about Stormfly.

Toothless caught a glimpse of me and leaped in my direction, landing just feet away from my right leg. He almost knocked me over asking for my protection. I cautiously put my hand out, and he rubbed underneath it, thinking I was gonna protect him from the storm. But I was just as scared as he was. And it wasn't just that a lightning bolt barely missed my head.

"C'mon, buddy," I said with a quaver in my voice. "L-let's get downstairs." I began trodding back to ground level, Toothless right behind me. I knew he was way closer to my back than he usually was when he followed me around, but I was fine with it. The only thing I could do was stay with him, let him know everything was gonna be okay. And deep down, I knew that was a lie. Because of Stormfly.

I sat down on the floor, which was a little trick I liked to use when Toothless was upset. By sitting down, Toothless became taller than me, putting him in a little more of a protective mood. It was a way to get his mind off of being upset or scared.

It worked, just like all the other times. Toothless might have taken a minute or so to calm down, but he finally came back to earth. He nudged me in the shoulder with his snout, grunting slightly. To me, it meant he was asking if I was okay. I tried to pretend like it and scratched him gently underneath his chin. He closed his eyes and murmured quietly.

"That's better," I whispered to him. "It's gonna be okay." I put my hand on his side, feeling his heart race.

Another thunderclap, this time from a little bit of distance. Toothless jumped slightly and tensed. I felt just how scared he was, with the fear of the unknown. To him, he was afraid that one of those explosions might hit him.

"Looks like we can't go out there for a while," Gobber said. "Hope you and your dragons don't mind being stuck with me." Nobody said anything.

Just before Gobber shut the door, I caught a glimpse of Stormfly. She was slumped over, but still standing. Her eyes were glassy, which probably meant she was dead on her feet. To the gods, this was a minor blip for them. Because the rain continued falling. The lightning continued flashing. And the thunder continued rolling.

Toothless curled slightly around my back, his head to my left and his tail to my right. He gave a quiet groan that had a noticeable quaver to it.

"We're gonna be okay, bud," I whispered, stroking the top of his head. He looked at me with worry. I wished I could find something to ease his state of mind, but there was nothing I could do. It was that helpless feeling, knowing your best friend was gonna suffer for a while, and you had to witness every minute of it.

I wrapped my arms gently around Toothless's neck, just in front of his saddle. It was my way of telling him I wasn't going anywhere. That he was gonna be safe as long as I was with him.

The rain continued falling. The lightning continued painting the sky with white. And the thunder continued rolling. But I stayed next to Toothless throughout the entire storm.

* * *

If I had to guess, the storm had lasted about four hours, give or take. About normal for one of these monsters. I stood up, my hips and knees groaning from being so stiff for that long. Limped toward the door. My dad was asleep in his bed across the house, snoring much more quietly than normal. Thornado wasn't too far away from him, sleeping. And Gobber was asleep with a small river of his drink spilling out of his prosthetic mug.

I thought it was interesting that Thornado was pretty calm throughout the entire night. I figured all of the dragons in Berk were going to be running amok because of the constant explosions. But I never heard anything come from him.

I quietly opened the door and walked out. Closed it. And looked around, surveying the damage to Berk.

No damage, excluding one dragon. Who was still dead on her feet. I walked closer to Stormfly, my boot and peg leaving a one-of-a-kind trail in the water-soaked land. There was a quiet buzzing around the Deadly Nadder in front of me. The flies around Berk must have gotten the message pretty quickly, because there were several of them around this dragon.

"Oh, gods," I whispered. I had no idea a split-second could do so much damage to one living thing. I almost threw up looking at Stormfly.

She was standing somehow, her body twisted at a disturbing angle. Her head was nearly touching the ground. Her wings? Tattered. Her left wing was nowhere to be seen; only a bloody stump remained.

But what really shocked me was her feet. The tops of her feet were blown open, revealing bone, muscle and tendons. A small amount of blood was pooling around her feet, but most of it had been washed away by the rain. Adding to the savagery of the moment was the sight of blood dripping from her eyes, nose and mouth.

This was bad. Someone had to tell Astrid about this. I slowly trudged my way toward her house, mulling over how I was gonna break the news to her. I had about fifty different ways to say it, and none of them sounded good.

I took the steps toward her door. And knocked, hoping somehow I wouldn't have to say it.


	2. Chapter 2

Astrid's door creaked open slowly, revealing one of her eyes. She looked at me for a second before swinging the door open. Her face was ashen and her eyes were red, probably from not sleeping the entire night. She had an anxious look on her face, which told me her day was only gonna get worse.

"H-Hiccup, have you seen Stormfly?" Her voice was hoarse from worry.

I froze on the spot, even though I had rehearsed it a thousand times on my way over here. There is nothing you can do to "get better" at telling someone about the death of a friend. If anything, each time makes it worse.

"Astrid, I-I'm sorry," I mumbled. "If there was something I could have done to help her, I would've done it."

"What do you mean?"

"A…uh, a…lightning…," I choked out, unable to finish my thought.

Her hand covered her mouth as her eyes went wide. "Is she still alive?"

I looked down, but didn't say anything because she got the message quickly enough. My eyes were beginning to water because I felt so bad about what Astrid was going through. It was the same kind of bleak, hopeless feeling I had when my dad and his crew ripped Toothless away from me that day in the arena. When I was in the middle of my "rite of passage."

"Wh-where is she?" Astrid said.

I took a deep breath. Glanced behind myself, toward home. There was a barely recognizable shape near my house. I pointed at it and said, "Over there."

Astrid stepped out of her house and quietly closed her door. Started walking without even letting me know she was going. I followed behind her as she closed the distance between us and Stormfly. We were about halfway up the hill leading to her dragon when Astrid picked up the pace a little. And suddenly, she stopped. We weren't five feet away from Stormfly, who was in that same position, head and neck twisted nearly halfway around, blood slowly pooling in front of her feet. And her feet were still blown open. I just couldn't get over the fact that being struck by lightning in the head could do so much damage all over.

"It's not Stormfly," Astrid said after a pause. She sounded absolutely sure of herself.

I did a double take. Of course this was Stormfly in front of us. Was she in denial because she didn't wanna have to accept that her dragon was dead? Or was she right, and somehow her dragon was still alive?

"What?" I asked after a few seconds.

"This isn't Stormfly," she repeated.

"Are…are you sure about this?"

"Positive," she said. "Stormfly doesn't have a band of yellow running down her side."

I looked closer, trying to see what she was seeing. And sure enough, there was a narrow yellow stripe between the dragon's blue top and white bottom. I blinked, making sure I wasn't seeing things. But that stripe never disappeared.

I sighed, trying to show I was relieved, but if anything, I felt a little worse. Sure, there was a chance Stormfly was still alive, and I was gonna help Astrid find her. But I felt bad because this Deadly Nadder was one of the dragons living in Berk. One of _our_ dragons, even if it didn't belong to anyone.

"Do, uh…do you know where Stormfly might be?" I asked slowly.

"Maybe," she said. "But I think I'm gonna need help." I looked at her blankly, still reeling from having to examine the Nadder who was slaughtered by Thor last night. Astrid turned toward me and asked, "Do you mind if I join you and Toothless for a morning flight?" There was no change in her expression. It was nothing romantic, just the I'm-on-a-mission tone of voice.

"Well, I don't see why not," I replied, trying to sound at least somewhat animated. But I just couldn't do it. Maybe Toothless could help in changing that. "Be right back," I said. I turned toward home to fetch my dragon. Hoped we could find Stormfly within the near future.

I opened the door to find Gobber, my dad and Thornado still asleep. Toothless was curled up in the middle of the floor, about ten feet away from the hearth. He blearily opened his eyes and looked in my direction as I walked in and shut the door. He yawned. Stretched. And stood up. Padded over to me and murmured softly, rubbing against my side. "Hey, bud. How are you feeling?" I asked quietly. He looked at me with his deep, yellow-green eyes.

Being around dragons was almost magical. Being around Toothless, even more so. No matter how bad a day I was having, he could always make it better. I thought it was nearly impossible to be in a surly mood around him.

I silently opened the door to keep the other occupants of the house from waking. Toothless walked outside and waited. I followed, closing the door behind me.

I held his gaze for a little bit, trying not to tip him off about what I was thinking. Toothless kept staring at me, waiting for something to happen. "Let's go flying," I said quietly. Toothless jumped forward, nearly crushing me against the door, his body wriggling with excitement. He knew exactly what was coming. A victory lap around the island, followed by breakfast.

"Okay. Okay, yes, you're excited. I can tell," I said to him. I gently pushed him backwards so I could get some space between me and him, which was much harder than it sounded. In retrospect, I should have stood on the _other_ side of him, then told him we were flying. Oh, well. There was always next time.

Toothless bounded away from me, getting into open air as I followed. I smiled a little watched him for a moment, knowing we went through this routine every morning. And it never got old. As I moved away from the house, I looked down to make sure I knew where the ground was. And stepped.

I heard a frightened squawk come from Toothless as he skidded to a halt near Astrid and the Nadder Thor had killed last night. "Oh, man," I mumbled under my breath. I walked toward where Toothless and Astrid were standing. Toothless was frozen in place, staring at the Nadder. He was locked into full concentration, but wasn't moving. It was as if he could gather every bit of information he needed ten feet away from the dragon.

I knew walking up behind him was a recipe for a fireball, so I took a roundabout path to get to him. I made sure I was in his field of vision before I approached. As soon as I saw his eyes, I whispered, "Hey, Toothless. How 'bout a morning flight?" No response.

"What is he getting at?" Astrid asked.

"I have no idea," I told her. I slowly crept toward Toothless, trying to keep from startling him. I got maybe five feet away from him when he grunted and blinked. He switched his gaze from the Nadder to me. I took advantage and stepped between him and the other dragon. Closed the distance between us and stroked the top of his head. Toothless closed his eyes and murmured in comfort, knowing I was still here for him.

"Is he okay?" Astrid said from behind me.

"Yeah, come on," I said.

Before Astrid could move, a raspy, condescending voice startled the three of us. It was Mildew. "Astrid, I am _so_ sorry about your dragon. It's just awful that Thor had to do this. And, you know, I was starting to like your dragon a little bit. Really, if there is anything I can do for you, please tell me." Toothless growled because he liked Mildew about as much as he liked eels.

I closed my eyes in annoyance and was ready to retaliate when I realized it was gonna be hopeless. Mildew was the kind of person who was never gonna budge, even if he knew he was hysterically wrong.

_Not now. Don't do it,_ I thought. I hoped Astrid was good at reading my mind, because he was ready to immerse himself in sadistic pleasure if she opened her mouth. Before she could say anything, an idea hit me, so I took the opening. "That was very timely of you, Mildew," I said matter-of-factly, turning toward him. Let the moment hang, waiting for him to stumble. I was trying to let him know I was onto something. The way he was talking to Astrid just didn't sound natural enough to be coincidental timing.

"You don't have to mind me, I'm just going to the great hall for breakfast," he said with a sideways glance in my direction. He continued walking, Fungus beside him. I stood there in confusion because of his expression. Mildew wasn't the kind of person who was anywhere near gifted at giving his condolences about something. But his face looked like he was trying to hide a smirk from me. And that meant one of two things: either he was thrilled another dragon was dead, or he really _was_ hiding something. Like Stormfly, maybe?

I waited for him to get out of earshot and said to Astrid, "Was it just me, or was he being a little too obvious about that?"

"It sounded like he practiced it. D'you think he's hiding something?" she said. Just like I had hoped a few seconds ago, Astrid read my mind perfectly. Besides, if Stormfly weren't at his house, it wasn't like we were gonna waste a lot of time there. "I say we check, just in case."

"Sounds good to me," I replied. Hopped onto Toothless's back and helped Astrid up behind me.

Toothless spread his wings and jumped, getting air underneath us. "Mildew's first, then survey the island?" I asked.

"Let's go. He's never gonna be able to catch up with us."

"All right, bud," I said to Toothless. "Mildew's house first."

He took off, letting me control where he went. Toothless was familiar with the way I told him where to go. He knew that tone of voice meant to let me control our flight. I worked my peg until we had turned in a half-circle, facing directly toward Mildew's house. It wasn't hard to spot, mainly because it was completely by itself. Away from town. Where nobody had to worry about him.

Toothless flew in a straight line toward Mildew's house and prepared to land in the middle of his cabbage garden.

"Not here, bud," I said, pulling gently upward on his saddle. Toothless grunted and hovered for a little bit, kicking up small clouds of dust from pockets of loose soil dotting the garden. I directed him forward until we were somewhat behind the house. I didn't want to give Mildew any reason to get even more angry with me. Dragon tracks in his cabbage garden would have definitely done it.

I jumped off Toothless's back and helped Astrid off. "Stay here, okay?" I said, making eye contact with my dragon. He sat back on his haunches, waiting for me to give him the signal.

"He listens well," Astrid observed.

"Thanks," I said. I wasn't going any farther than thanking Astrid. Not when she was looking for her dragon.

I walked casually toward Mildew's front door, noting with dismay that my tracks were gonna be my undoing if he went to my dad about this. Pulled on the door. It rattled, but never opened. Pushed. More rattling, no opening. Most houses on Berk had a front and back entrance. There was a reason for it too. For example, if an Outcast raid happened, we had two different ways to escape from our houses. Mildew, on the other hand, only had one way in and one way out of his house. Not a good plan, especially if the only way in or out was blocked.

"It's locked," I said, looking around the corner at Astrid. "Can you see in through the windows?" Every house on Berk (including Mildew's) had open windows that could be covered with heavy sheets of leather.

"Uh-uh. Too tall," Astrid replied.

"How far do you need to go?"

"A foot, maybe?"

I walked back to Toothless and got his attention. Directed him over to Astrid. "Right here, buddy," I told him. He crouched letting Astrid get on his back. She never sat down on his saddle, which he noticed. Toothless grunted in curiosity. I knew he was about to move, so I stepped closer, holding eye contact with him. I kept it neutral, letting Toothless know he needed to stay still. "Anything?" I asked Astrid.

She grabbed onto the ledge to steady her balance and peered in. For a moment, I was thankful Mildew wasn't smart enough to cover his windows. "I don't think so," she said.

"His house is essentially one giant room. If you don't see Stormfly quickly, she's probably not here."

"Stormfly? Come on, girl," Astrid said into the house. I waited silently, making sure to keep Toothless from moving. Astrid stayed where she was for a beat, then slowly sat down on Toothless's back. "Nothing," she said with a deep breath.

I waited for her to suggest a location, but she continued looking down. Toothless crouched slightly, giving Astrid the option of getting off his back. But she stayed there. "Do you have any idea where she might be?" I asked her.

Astrid shrugged. "The cove? Either that or the forest on the other side of the island."

The cove was the last place I thought Stormfly might be. Thunder would echo around inside those walls for eternity, especially if a lightning bolt came close enough. Stormfly would have been scared right out of the cove if she had visited there last night. But to humor Astrid, I said, "Okay, let's see what we find." I jumped onto Toothless's back in front of Astrid and hooked in with my peg. We took off. Toothless was still letting me decide our course, so I turned us around again, heading for the cove. I just hoped he'd let me take him there. Toothless knew the cove wasn't a good place for him. That was his prison when I had first shot him down. I took him there for punishment when I had Torch waddling around Berk.

Predictably, once the cove was within sight, Toothless squawked and tried to adjust his flight so that we didn't go there.

"What's gotten into him?" Astrid asked.

"I'll tell you later," I said. Turned my attention toward Toothless. "It's okay, bud. We're gonna stay with you."

I fought him the entire way to the ground. Toothless landed in a heap, panting. "It's okay," I said again. Dismounted and helped Astrid off his back. I kept my left hand on Toothless's neck, telling him I wasn't going to abandon him again. I turned my attention to Astrid and said, "You're on your own here."

She looked at me quizzically. Before she said anything, I continued. "Toothless will throw a fit if I leave him alone." She nodded in understanding, knowing this was the place she first met Toothless. And started walking.

From my vantage point, the cove looked completely normal, except for a slightly higher water level in the stream and lake. I knew rainfall tended to collect here, simply because the cove was at a lower elevation than the surrounding area. I glanced around, keeping my hand on Toothless. I felt his tension from just being here, so I hoped Astrid would hurry.

A quick shimmer from one of the low-hanging bushes caught my attention. It was maybe twenty feet to Astrid's left.

"Astrid!" I called. She turned to me. "That bush to your left might have something behind it." I pointed with my right hand. She turned just as it shimmered again, catching her attention. I watched as she slowly crept toward the bush. She was about five feet away when it exploded. Astrid yelped in surprise as three Terrible Terrors jumped out of the bush and flew away. You could always count on those little monsters to be somewhere inconvenient.

"That wasn't funny," she said from across the way.

"I had no idea."

Astrid continued her search for a short while, then returned to me and Toothless.

"Nothing," she said.

"Would Stormfly know of any caves on the island?" I asked. The idea of a cave made sense to me. If the entrance was sloped correctly, water wouldn't collect inside a cave. Get deep enough, and thunder doesn't sound so loud anymore. There was only one problem with this. We had about twenty different caves and tunnels on Berk.

Astrid shrugged. "Probably. We've been to several of them for your training exercises."

"We'll find her," I said, trying to sound reassuring. "C'mon, let's go." Astrid jumped onto Toothless back behind me and we were airborne again. I'd have been willing to bet Toothless was ecstatic about leaving the cove for now.

"Let's start with places we've been for training," I suggested. I figured I had a fifty percent chance of looking like a genius. Maybe Stormfly would have gone somewhere familiar. Then again, if she was panicking, her choice would have been more random.

I knew of three openings on the far side of the mountain we had visited for training. One of them was a small entrance with no tunnel. Most likely, Stormfly wouldn't have taken shelter there for the night, but it never hurt to check.

That cave was the first one we approached. One glance told me there wasn't anything of interest there. Toothless landed and ran to the next opening. He put his nose to the ground and started sniffing, hopefully searching for a trace of Stormfly.

I felt Astrid begin to slide off the saddle. "Hang on, Toothless might be onto something," I said. Toothless grunted and followed a scent trail, much like a dog would do. It took him past two openings in the mountain, all the way to the tapered end of the ledge we were on. He looked up and gave a short roar. The kind of roar that told me he had found something of interest.

"Hang on," I said to Astrid. I hooked back into the stirrup. Toothless took off, headed upwards. He landed at the entrance of a cave I'd have bet nobody knew about. It was completely inaccessible, unless you had a dragon with you.

Toothless galloped into the cave with a grunt. A high-pitched, staccato warble responded, which startled Astrid.

"That sounds like Stormfly!" She immediately jumped off the saddle and ran forward. And stopped after about three steps. For the record, I had no idea how she could distinguish Stormfly's call from any other Nadder. They all sounded the same to me. But we had a new problem. The Nadder who had warbled from the darkness wasn't coming out. And Astrid couldn't see six inches past her face.

"Stormfly?" she asked. Another warble. "C'mon, girl. It's gonna be fine," she coaxed. Another warble, followed by what sounded like hard leather brushing against rock.

Astrid took another step forward and stumbled slightly with a gasp. "Oh, no," she said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The ground is nothing but sharp rocks. One of them just went through my boot."

Not good. Stormfly wasn't gonna move because of the ground. Astrid just had one of those stalagmites go through her boot, although her tone sounded like it hadn't pierced her foot. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It didn't go through my foot." She paused for a beat then asked, "Can Toothless shoot anything other than fireballs?"

"Yeah, but I haven't taught him any commands for it."

Astrid sighed in irritation and backpedaled slightly. "All right. I know Stormfly is to the left. Have Toothless shoot a fireball in that direction." She pointed slightly to our right.

"Toothless, plasma blast," I said, pointing in that general direction. With a high-pitched grunt, Toothless shot a fireball that didn't travel more than ten feet before it collided with the wall. A hollow, echoing explosion filled the air for a second or so. Stormfly gave another warble.

The fireball gave us enough light to see what we were up against. Stormfly was about ten feet to the left of where the fireball had exploded. Maybe fifteen feet away from us in total. The ground was nothing but thin, razor-sharp rock fragments. Perhaps we could clear them out of the way?

"Can I try something crazy?" I asked.

"For you, that's normal," Astrid pointed out. I wasn't gonna argue, mainly because she was right.

"Here, take this. See if you can cut out a path on the ground." I took my peg off and touched her shoulder with it.

"What…Hiccup are you serious!?"

"Just try it. But be careful, because I can still feel pain through that."

Astrid turned to face me and said, "Liar." She grabbed the peg out of my hand and brought it down. The ground beneath the foot shattered, leaving fragments of thin rock behind.

"Well, that _kinda_ worked," I said. "How're ya gonna get the fragments out of the way?"

"Dunno," she said tersely. And continued hammering. More rocks fragmented, more shards to move out of the way.

After several more strikes, Astrid paused and said, "Stormfly? Talk to me, girl." Stormfly gave a quiet warble. Astrid turned to her left and continued hammering her way toward her dragon.

"Can you get to her?" I called into the cave. My voice echoed slightly as I heard Astrid progressing toward her dragon.

"Uh, yeah, but Stormfly's in big trouble," she replied.

"What's going on?"

"She can't walk." Astrid sounded worried again. I knew this was really bad. Stormfly's only means of locomotion was walking.

"Do I need to get someone else?" I asked.

"I don't think we have another choice. I'll stay here with Stormfly while you go find someone."

"Yeah, about that, I think I'll need my leg back," I pointed out.

"Oh." Astrid shuffled through the broken rocks, kicking them slightly out of the way as she returned my peg. I strapped it on.

"We'll need a signal when we get back." She nodded. I climbed onto Toothless's back and clicked into the stirrup. Toothless turned around and jumped, getting air underneath us once more.


	3. Chapter 3

Toothless approached the plaza from the air, where a small crowd greeted us. And by "greet," I meant "glare." Mildew was near the front, standing with my dad. Both of them had their arms folded, which told me I was in trouble. If Mildew was able to convince my dad about something concerning me, then I knew it was quite a heinous crime.

As Toothless's feet hit the ground, he turned toward Mildew and snarled.

"It's okay, bud," I said, putting my hand on top of his head. He quieted down, but didn't stop rumbling. I got off of Toothless's back. Turned toward my dad and asked, "What's the complaint of the day?"

"Mildew found your footprints by his house," my dad said with no change in his expression.

I didn't have time for this. Astrid was waiting and Stormfly was getting weaker by the minute. "Um, can we talk about this in an hour or so? Astrid and Stormfly are…"

"NO." I quickly shut my mouth. "Why were you there?"

I closed my eyes briefly, knowing any answer I gave him was gonna be wrong. "Great," I mumbled before deciding on the truth. "I thought Mildew had dragon-napped Stormfly." My dad raised his eyebrows slightly, which was a signal to explain further. "When Astrid and I found the dead dragon outside our house, Mildew walked by and faked sympathy about the dragon."

"Me? Fake?" Mildew asked. "I was being sincere!"

"Since when have you actually _liked_ having dragons around!?" I shot at him.

"Oh, there are only certain dragons I actually appreciate here," he said at an excruciatingly slow pace. He must have known I was in a hurry, so he made sure to keep me here on the spot for as long as possible.

"Yeah. Dead ones," I said sardonically. "And that dragon wasn't Astrid's," I added before anyone could do anything.

"No?" he said. It sounded fake again. "Well, it certainly looked like him."

"_Her,_" I countered.

"No, boy, not Astrid. The dragon!"

"Yes, _her_ name is Stormfly. And she's in trouble if we don't help out."

"Bah!" Mildew spat. "That dragon will be fine! Maybe _she_ just doesn't want to be around your Night Fury."

That comment threw me totally off-guard. I blinked in confusion when Mildew added, "It would have been a shame to see Astrid's dragon dead. But as long as that Night Fury's around, more dragons will be killed." He said it without feeling, totally contradicting the lies that were flowing out of his mouth mere seconds ago. "After all, the Night Fury is the offspring of lightning and death itself. You don't think Thor will let him live here without consequences, do you?"

"DOES ANYONE EVEN CARE ABOUT ASTRID!?" I shouted to everyone in the plaza. I was sick and tired of being put on the spot just because I happened to show up at exactly the wrong time. "Her dragon is injured and needs help getting back home!" I said, pointing in the general direction of the mountain.

"That wouldn't have happened if we didn't have a Night Fury here," Mildew chimed in.

"Yeah, we'd still be fighting dragon raids and losing our food stocks," I interrupted.

"Really, boy, why do you insist on keeping this monster around?" Mildew asked, generally ignoring my comment. "Thor's anger is only going to get worse."

"And just _how_ do you know that?" I probed.

"One word," Mildew prompted. "Barnstadt." Several of the villagers around us gave an audible gasp.

I knew this story and its hundreds of variations, although what supposedly happened took place about a decade before I was born. According to legend, Barnstadt was worse than what we had with Mildew. His normal state of wakefulness was one of profound intoxication. For years, he had been stealing items such as weapons, shields and valuable trinkets from people on Berk. Nobody was sacrosanct, even my dad or the chief before him. Several times, he nearly incited Berserker attacks on Berk, just because he was sadistic like that. As the story goes, Thor got increasingly angry with Barnstadt because his behavior had gotten more…um…lewd over time. Thor even sent warning signs, like making the masts of ships glow with an eerie light. Freyr's Light, some of us called it. But Barnstadt never paid attention. So during one particularly bad thunderstorm, Thor came to Berk in the form of a ball of lightning and killed Barnstadt by striking him in the chest and head.

I had heard several versions of what had happened to Barnstadt when he was killed. One version simply stated he died on the spot from fright or from seeing Thor's face in person. Another said the lightning ball entered his chest and blew his head clean off his shoulders in a bloody mess, like it was a statement from Thor. And others were somewhere in between.

"Completely different!" I shouted back. "Name one time when Toothless has hurt anyone in this village after we fought the Red Death!"

I knew exactly where Mildew was gonna go with this. "He destroyed the armory when Outcasts were on their way here," he said matter-of-factly.

"And that hurt someone?" I said back.

"Well…he _could_ have!" Mildew said, stumbling in his argument. "Why did he do that when Outcasts were close? It seems like your Night Fury was interested in killing everyone here. Why, I don't think it would be a stretch to say this dragon is an Outcast." Some of the crowd mumbled at his accusation. I couldn't tell whether they supported or were against Mildew.

I froze. I had no retort. Shouting again was only going to make my position worse. Mildew raised his walking staff slightly and pointed the tip at my dragon. Toothless tried to back away, but the staff bonked him in the snout. "I don't think this dragon should…" he started, but couldn't finish his sentence. I knew Toothless was already on-edge just because Mildew was around. And this was all Mildew needed to do to provoke an attack.

Toothless lunged forward with a snarl and grabbed Mildew's walking staff out of his hands with his teeth. He crunched down in the middle of the staff, breaking it into two pieces. Toothless spit the broken staff out of his mouth and roared directly at Mildew's face. There was nothing I could do, not when Mildew had precipitated an attack like this. _I am so dead_, I thought. I kinda thought Mildew was being intentional with it so that he could buy some of the villagers' respect. So he could spread his opinion on dragons.

Mildew turned his back on the crowd. Smirked at me after Toothless closed his mouth and said, "You should muzzle your dragon, Hiccup." He turned slowly and hobbled away, Fungus in tow. I was powerless to respond. I had no control over Toothless's reaction. But the exact same thing would have happened with any dragon. I just hoped Mildew felt lucky, because if he would have done the same thing with Stormfly, he'd have ended up with a couple of tail spikes lodged in his midsection.

As Mildew got out of earshot, I said, "So he went from hating all dragons to loathing Toothless. That's just great."

"Toothless will be fine," my dad said. "Mildew was just worried that you or Toothless had stolen something from him."

"Oh, and his fake sympathy about Stormfly didn't matter!" I shouted. "What about this entire production that happened within the last five minutes!? You're just gonna let him walk all over me and Toothless?"

"Hiccup, why are you so concerned about this?" Gobber said. "You know there's a reason Mildew lives out of the way."

"Because he'll do anything to get our dragons killed! What am I supposed to do? Just let him kill Toothless? What about the Academy? What about defending our home? What about _me_?"

"He won't kill Toothless," my dad said with a tone of voice that sounded final. I gave up the argument anyway. It just wasn't worth it, not when I was trying to fight against someone who so aggressively defied any kind of logic.

I took a deep breath, trying to clear the proverbial smoke out of my vision before turning back to my dad. "Astrid's in trouble. Stormfly can't walk, and they need our help."

"Where are they?" he asked.

"A cave somewhere on the other side of the mountain. Stormfly must have flown there during the storm last night."

"And you say her dragon's injured?"

I nodded. "The ground is nothing but sharp rocks. Her feet are probably in tatters by now. And Astrid had one of those rocks go through her boot."

"All right. I'll get Thornado and meet you back here. Gobber, can you help Hiccup make a sling to carry Stormfly?"

"Don't need to," he replied. "We still have the one we used to move the injured Thunderdrum." He went into the armory, and I followed. Gobber immediately grabbed the sling he had placed neatly in a far corner, just in case we needed it again. I picked up a spare piece of wood about two feet in length to use as a torch when we got back to the cave.

My dad nodded and walked back to the house. He returned a couple minutes later on the back of Thornado. Gobber gave him the sling. "Ready?" he asked me.

"Ready," I said, getting onto Toothless's back.

Thornado grunted as he took off. Toothless followed, taking the lead. We were headed toward the far side of the mountain. It didn't take long to find Astrid waving her arms at the entrance of the cave.

"What took you so long?" she asked as Toothless landed. He walked slightly into the cave to let Thornado land behind him with a dull thud.

I sighed in frustration. "Mildew." Got off Toothless's back and held the tip of the plank about a foot in front of his snout. This was something I had taught him recently. A non-verbal command to start a fire. After a couple of fireballs wrenching sticks out of my hands (and pulling out several splinters), Toothless quickly got the idea about using a stream of fire, like when he's getting ready to lie down.

Toothless looked at the plank for a second and pulled in a short breath. A gentle stream of white fire leapt from his mouth to the wood, lighting the torch. He stopped after about two seconds. Torch lit with no problems. Perfect execution, if you ask me.

"Thanks, bud," I said. I scratched him gently under his chin. He closed his eyes and rumbled happily. "Stay here," I told him.

The fire illuminated the path Astrid had cleared using my peg. I let her go first, then me and my dad last. Each step was punctuated by the sound of sharp fragments of rock crunching under our feet. Astrid followed her path until it turned left to reveal an exhausted Stormfly curled against the far wall. The cave extended further, but considering the state of the ground we were standing on, there would have been no way Stormfly would have gotten very far.

As we got closer to Astrid's dragon, there was a large bloodstain on the ground formed by Stormfly tearing her feet on these rocks. They were still bleeding, and it didn't help that fragments of rocks were lodged in the soles of her feet.

Astrid bent down to begin removing the shrapnel, but Stormfly wouldn't let her touch her feet. Astrid tried again, provoking a hiss from her dragon. Normally, Stormfly was pretty receptive to Astrid. Except for today, when she must have been in a lot of pain. "She won't let me touch her," she confirmed.

"Well, somehow we've gotta get this sling around her," my dad pointed out.

"Do you think we can team-lift her? Or somehow drag her out?" I suggested.

"We don't have a choice," Astrid said. "Her feet can't touch the ground, and she's got more fragments in her belly." Astrid eased forward and placed one of her hands on Stormfly's snout. She whispered gently to her dragon, saying she was gonna be okay. That everything was gonna be fine. Stormfly relaxed slightly and took a deep breath.

"We have to take the fragments out of her underside," my dad said. "Then we can get the sling on from front-to-back and get her out of here."

"Can you keep her still?" I said to Astrid. She nodded and kept her hand on her dragon's snout. I crept forward and saw fifteen or so miniature daggers sticking out of Stormfly's underside. Put the torch on the ground so I could use both hands. Gently wrapped my left hand around one of them and pulled. It came out with a drop of blood on the tip. But more importantly, Stormfly didn't react, which was good.

I grabbed another rock and pulled. Same result. On about the fifth shard, Stormfly jumped slightly with a grunt. "Is she okay?" I asked. Astrid nodded and kept her dragon's attention away from me. The rest of the fragments came out without complaint, which told me Stormfly's scales did a good job of protecting her.

"I think we're ready for the sling," I said to my dad. Checked the torch. It had about six inches left, so we had to get it done quickly. I turned around to find Toothless at the entrance of the cave looking at me with a worried expression. Thornado was also there watching the proceedings.

My dad walked toward Stormfly, his feet crunching over the rocks. "Keep her still," he said to Astrid. She nodded, never looking in his direction. Used his feet to break off several ground spikes. He was making a bare spot in the cave floor to let Stormfly rest on without further injuring her. The way he was looking at the path we had cleared earlier told me we weren't picking Stormfly up using manpower alone anytime soon. My thought was confirmed when my dad said, "I think we'll have to drag her out."

He placed the sling on the ground, the wind from it nearly extinguishing the torch. It flickered for a second before steadying again. "Get her to lie down on the leather, then we'll drag her out," my dad said to Astrid.

Astrid pulled gently at the horn on Stormfly's snout, trying to direct her onto the leather. Stormfly grunted quietly, torn between moving and staying still. It wasn't hard to see the hesitation in her eyes. After a short match of tug-of-war, Stormfly finally relented and collapsed on the leather sheet with a groan. She took another deep breath and sighed in pain.

My dad collected the ropes in the front of the sling, lifting Stormfly's head slightly. "I'll take the front," he said. "You two make sure her feet and tail don't touch the ground." He placed the ropes over his right shoulder and began walking forward, using the torch's light as a guide. We followed the path we had created earlier and slowly got Stormfly near the front of the cave. Just as the torch extinguished itself.

"Thank…goodness," Astrid said with a huff. We didn't need the torch anymore, but night was about to fall. As far as I could tell, there were no storms on the horizon, which was convenient.

"You and Toothless take the front," my dad commanded. "Thornado and I will carry the back."

"Okay," I said as I approached Toothless. He grunted as I neared him, thankful everyone was gonna be fine. Rubbed gently into my shoulder with his snout. Now if Mildew would have been here to see that…

I looped the ropes underneath Toothless's saddle and got on his back. He knew what to do once he was airborne, because we found out from other experiences the leather was never gonna hold Stormfly's weight. Toothless and I had learned that he needed to hold onto the ropes with his front paws to help lighten the stress on his saddle.

"Ready?" my dad asked as Astrid joined me on Toothless's back, wrapping her arms around my midsection. I nodded. He nodded back.

"Toothless, up," I said. He jumped, his wings working double time to make sure he could lift Stormfly. I felt his front legs adjust so that he had at least some purchase on the ropes. "Keep it slow, bud," I said, rocking backward with my peg slightly.

I heard Thornado grunt as he took off. Toothless tilted a little and then continued toward the village.

We had no major incident getting back to Berk, thankfully. Since Astrid's house was guarded by stairs, we brought Stormfly to her pen just outside of the house. And dragged her with the sling about halfway into the pen, her feet and tail facing outward.

In the dancing firelight coming from around the village, I saw several rock fragments sticking out of the soles of her feet. And all of them appeared to be lodged tightly. _This_ was gonna be difficult and painful, not only for Stormfly, but also for me and Astrid. Because we were gonna have to listen to Stormfly every time we pulled out a rock.

"Do you, uh, have any suggestions?" I stuttered to Astrid.

She tightened her lips and stared at her dragon's feet. And shook her head.

I took a deep breath. "I'll get the bandages and other supplies." Without waiting for her approval, I walked maybe twenty feet to the armory and grabbed what I needed. A large sponge, soft sheets of leather, forceps and a bucket of water. And a ridiculous amount of seaweed.

Gobber noticed me and asked, "Need any help?"

"Please," I replied. Returned to our group huddled around Stormfly. "All right. Here we go." I took another deep breath.

Using the forceps, I quickly grabbed onto a rock shard and pulled. Even though the rock came out cleanly, it took way more effort that I wanted, and blood began oozing out of Stormfly's foot. Stormfly gave a screech and kicked at the air just as I backed away from her. Her tail thrashed slightly, some of the spikes getting dangerously close to being airborne.

"Can you keep her company?" I asked Astrid over the din. She nodded and knelt by Stormfly's head. Whispered something as she stroked her dragon's head. It worked to calm her down somewhat, although her tail still had its spikes standing at attention.

Gobber came out of the armory and looked at what we were trying to do. "Ah, so you found her," he said to Astrid. My dad, Astrid and I glared at Gobber for being so dense at the moment.

"If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!" Astrid shouted at him.

"All right then," he said. "You stay by her. Hiccup, out of the way."

I moved, letting him do his thing. I knew there was a chance Stormfly was going to impale him with a tail spike or two, but Gobber was probably the man for this job anyway. When it came to something dire like this, he turned into a no-nonsense kind of person.

"Hold her leg down," he said. I walked up to Stormfly and put my hands gently on her right leg. "No, Hiccup, her _other_ leg." I sighed as I walked around her tail and knelt, placing my hands just above her left foot. "Make sure she doesn't kick."

Without checking to see if I was ready, he quickly got his prosthetic forceps into position. Using his right hand, he closed the forceps over another rock and yanked. Stormfly shouted again and tried to kick. It took all of my strength to hold her leg down as Gobber readied his forceps again.

I was tired after about four shards, and we still hadn't finished Stormfly's left foot. Gobber was working at a breakneck pace, trying to get this ordeal over. And not only was I tired, I also felt horrible for what Astrid and Stormfly had to go through. Sure, this was our only choice to get her on the mend, but everyone here had to experience the pain Astrid and her dragon were going through.

"Okay, only one foot left," Gobber said after inspecting Stormfly's left foot, which had become a bloody mess. Gobber looked at me and noticed I was getting worn out. "Stoick, can you help?" My dad nodded and held Stormfly's right leg down.

I grabbed the bucket of water and sponge. Began gently working it over Stormfly's left foot while Gobber and my dad started on her right. Immediately, I found what I was doing would have to wait. Stormfly was kicking both feet every time Gobber pulled out a rock. So my job became one of simply watching. And feeling completely helpless every time Stormfly shrieked into the night. Every time a rock shard clattered to the ground, leaving a snail's trail of blood. I stood next to Toothless, hoping he could bring me a little solace. But the screeching never went away. Astrid's pained expression was still clearly visible to me.

"Get her feet cleaned and wrapped!" Gobber shouted to me.

I snapped back into the present and grabbed the bucket and sponge. Gently brought the sponge to Stormfly's left foot to clean it before applying the seaweed and bandages. Every time I touched her feet, she kicked slightly.

Gobber produced a second sponge, which me must have grabbed from the armory and began to work on Stormfly's right foot. She groaned in pain, but never thrashed her tail, which is what I was really worried about. She had already thrown about fifteen tail spikes when Gobber was removing the rocks from her feet.

We wrapped her feet in seaweed and bandages before Gobber and my dad turned in for the night, taking Thornado with them. Toothless and I stayed next to Astrid and her dragon. I was planning on keeping them company tonight. I wanted them to know that we were a team. That Toothless and I were never going to leave them.

I settled next to Stormfly's head, putting her between me and Astrid. Stormfly craned her neck slightly, sniffing at me. And gave me a gentle lick on the arm. Her way of saying thanks.

Astrid sighed and put her head in her hands. There was nothing I could say or do that would instantly heal Stormfly, and that was probably the worst part of this ordeal. That bleak, hopeless feeling when you know there is nothing you can do.

"Thanks, Hiccup," Astrid whispered as she stroked her dragon on the top of her head. Stormfly took a deep breath and sighed.

"Not a problem," I said. I knew it was a lie. But it didn't matter.

I watched as Toothless charred the ground, tromped on it and curled up. He looked at me before laying his head on his paws and closing his eyes.

"She's gonna be okay, isn't she?" Astrid asked.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah," I lied. "She's gonna be fine." In reality, I had no idea if Stormfly was gonna heal fast enough to stand without trouble again.

Astrid didn't reply. She only edged closer to her dragon and wrapped her arms around Stormfly's head. After a few minutes of looking out into the darkness, I heard her silently crying.


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up a tired wreck. I was too worried about Stormfly and Mildew and Astrid and…well, you get the idea. It seemed all I did these days was worry. Worry about the dragons we had around. Worry about the people on Berk living with said dragons. Worry about traditionalists. Like Mildew.

Traditionalists were the people I worried about the most. Because they were resistant to change. They wanted to live their lives the "old way." And when it came to dragons, the old way was without them. No Toothless, no Stormfly, no Meatlug.

And then there were people who were on the fence about traditionalism. The ones who couldn't decide where they belonged. Were they supposed to support the idea of getting rid of dragons? Or were they supposed to be inviting to them? I worried about those people too. Because it was like gravity. You stand on a ledge, and a little push in the right direction is all it takes to fall. Those undecided souls were like that. It didn't take a super-convincing argument to swing their opinions one way or another.

Now if you put people who were undecided about dragons with Mildew? You get a whole bunch of traditionalists after the day's over. Because all it takes is a nudge in the right direction. And it seemed yesterday that Mildew was starting to work up to speed on convincing a horde of Vikings to join his cause. I couldn't prove it, but the reason the armory blew up wasn't because of Toothless. I thought Mildew had planted some kind of explosive there. And I knew…no, I was absolutely positive that Toothless wasn't an Outcast. But it was hard to get somebody like Mildew to stop pressuring others. Kinda like turning around a charging yak. Probably wasn't worth the effort.

I sighed, knowing the next few days were going to be tough for me and Toothless. And all the other dragons and riders on Berk. Because if we had one slip-up, Mildew was gonna be all over it like green on grass. One more roof collapse, and everything I had worked for would be meaningless.

I looked around, seeing Toothless slightly curled around me. I had waited for Astrid to finish crying last night before moving next to Toothless. Didn't want her to think I was abandoning her when she needed someone there. I had thought about consoling her, but decided against it. She deserved to keep her dignity.

Astrid was still draped slightly over Stormfly's head. And Stormfly was asleep, telling me she was eventually going to be okay.

During the night, I somehow came up with an idea when I was thinking about Mildew and how much I didn't want him in Berk. His little comment two days ago about having to continually repair the roofs had stuck with me. He was right; we didn't have enough supplies to continually repair the roofs. But we _did_ have enough supplies to attack the problem from a different angle.

Perches.

Iron would most likely do the trick. I even had the overall design in my mind. The most important aspect of the perches was that they needed to be enticing for the dragons. I had learned over time that dragons will usually land on the tallest object they think will support their weight. Naturally, that meant they needed to be taller than the roofs nearby. Toothless was especially picky about this, as was Stormfly. Most Gronckles were impartial, and Monstrous Nightmares generally liked high places. Terrible Terrors? They weren't heavy enough to matter, although they liked to hide more than anything.

I felt Toothless stir from just behind me, so I decided to take advantage. Touched him gently on the side. He blinked a few times and looked at me with a quiet rumble.

"C'mon, buddy," I said. I stood up and walked toward the forge, Toothless not far behind me. I wasn't going to start on actually building the perches simply because it would have been too loud. I was only going to draft up the design I had in my head. I wanted the dimensions so I could figure out approximately how much iron we needed.

I sat down in my study as Toothless stuck his head in and lay down, his head resting on his paws. He moaned softly, telling me to hurry up so we could go on our morning flight. I didn't even look at him. The idea I had was more important at this particular moment.

The idea I had for the perches was a three-footed support system holding up a square bar. Essentially, the support legs would have three anchor points into the ground. We needed two of them to hold the bar aloft. I knew it needed to be square because I didn't want the bar rolling around in the supports when the dragons were on it. I wanted the bar to be cradled into each support to keep it from moving around, so I drew a U-shaped top to the supports. I drew the cradle slightly wider than the bar itself just to make sure we had some wiggle room. Just in case the actual thing was a little off from the design.

I had the dimensions of the perches, and I knew the density of iron. I thought it was fascinating that the density of iron never changed…well, unless you count rusted iron, which is completely useless. But I had figured it out when I was playing around one day in the forge, finding how much space a chunk of iron took up by immersing it in water (and getting rid of the water very quickly afterward by heating the iron). If you weigh that same chunk of iron, you can divide the weight by the space occupied to get the density. I repeated that little procedure several times with different pieces of iron and always got the same result. So I figured if I could get the space occupied by the perches and multiply by the density, I could estimate how much iron we needed.

That number turned out to be staggeringly large. I was pretty sure we had this much iron, but to make sure, I put the design in the middle of Gobber's workspace with a note on it. "Perches for the dragons: do we have enough iron?" I wrote down the amount we needed at the bottom and circled it.

I walked over to Toothless and roused him for a morning flight.

* * *

Toothless and I walked into the great hall from the front doors. Immediately upon entering, I felt a little uneasy. Several of the Vikings digging into breakfast saw me enter and held eye contact for a second or two. Most of the time, people just looked up, recognized who was entering and then resumed their business. But today, I felt like I was being singled out.

_This is not happening again_, I thought. I had gone through the first decade and a half of life like this. Always singled out, always the source of gossip around town. And through all those years, I never got used to it.

I took a deep breath and plodded forward, Toothless behind me. I was about halfway to the back of the hall, where the food was when someone said, "Just keep that dragon away from me."

I glanced to my left and found a Viking I didn't recognize sitting there glaring defensively at me and Toothless. He didn't seem important enough at the moment, so I continued walking with Toothless in tow. Reached the back of the great hall and selected a smoked cod. Filled a basket about halfway with fish for Toothless. And sat down alone.

Toothless looked at me with excitement as I put the basket down and flipped the lid open without empathy. He stuck his head into the basket and gave an eager grunt. Pulled his head back out with a fish in his mouth. Swallowed it. This was routine for him during meals. He always started with an excited grunt, like he was thanking me and then finished his meal in silence.

I slowly ate the fish in front of me, wondering why people seemed so cold all of a sudden. It wasn't like this just two mornings ago. There were even some people who smiled when Toothless entered the great hall. Several of the smaller kids really liked him, maybe because he was tolerant of them. But today, there was no greeting, except for chilling stares.

Wait…never mind. _Great,_ I thought. Mildew.

I started worrying once I got about three-quarters of the way through my breakfast. The tension in the great hall was getting a little too severe for my liking. I felt like someone was gonna attack Toothless if I didn't leave soon. I quickly finished breakfast alone and took the dish and basket to the back for cleaning. Returned to Toothless to find him unscathed.

"Let's go, bud," I said quietly. I strode out of the great hall, Toothless trotting along behind me. We exited, finding black clouds curling from the forge's smokestack. Someone was busy. Probably Gobber. I walked down to the forge to find several ten-foot-long square beams and an excited Gobber.

"Hiccup, you're a genius!" he shouted over the clanging of the hammer meeting iron.

Toothless obediently walked into the forge and sat down near the entrance of my study. I glanced at him to make sure he wasn't doing anything crazy before returning my attention to Gobber. "At least _someone_ appreciates me and Toothless," I mused.

He stopped and looked at me blankly. "Huh? I thought people here really liked Toothless."

"Well, yeah, me too. But in the great hall just a few moments ago, I felt like we were gonna be attacked."

"Sounds like you're just having one of _those_ days. I get them all the time. You'll get used to it," he said with an air of unconcern. And went straight back to work.

I paused for a moment, letting him hammer away. It was typical Gobber to brush off most of what I said to him. I decided not to press the issue and turned the topic to what he was making. "What are the beams for?" I asked.

"Perches," he said. "I think your idea is really going to keep our roofs intact."

Oh yeah, the idea I had this morning. I had completely forgotten about it until just now. "Um, how did you get so many done while I was gone?" I asked him.

Gobber stopped hammering again and said with an absolutely straight face, "If I told you that, it wouldn't be a secret, would it?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say. What's the secret?"

"Can't tell you. It's a secret."

"I'm begging on my hands and knees," I said flatly.

"_Knee_," he corrected.

I rolled my eyes at him. "I've still got two knees!"

Gobber walked to his left about three feet. Picked up what looked like another one of his odds-and-ends prosthetic hands. "This," he said, holding it where I could see. It was a plainly-shaped square made of iron about an inch thick. Looked to be nearly perfect size for the beams I had in mind. "I was wondering if I was ever gonna use this thing," he said.

"You've had it sitting here for all this time?"

"Yep! I can shape iron into a square in no time with this," he said excitedly. "The only difficult part about all this is making sure the pieces fit together."

"You don't have a hand for that?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well, I _do_, but I don't want to show off. It would make things a little too easy," he said, dropping his voice to a whisper. I simply nodded in complete understanding because this conversation was inching dangerously close to swimming in sarcasm.

"All right, then," I began with a sigh. "What do you want me to do?"

"Get the feet and cradles on the longest beams," he said.

I looked a little closer at his collection of iron beams and saw about half of them were close to twenty feet in length. Those had to be the supports. I remembered designing the legs about twice as long as the crossing beams.

"There's a pile of extra pieces on the other side of the beams," Gobber continued. "You can use those."

I smiled, knowing this was going to be easy, albeit time-consuming. While Gobber worked to make the rest of the beams we needed, I grabbed as much scrap iron as I could and filled several stone beakers. They went into the fire, where I could simply drip the iron onto the joints between the supporting beams and cradles/feet. I knew heating the square pieces would deform them, making this endeavor frustrating. Not to mention even more time-consuming, if not useless.

The cradles were probably easiest. All I had to do was line the smaller pieces of iron up with the beams and make sure they extended past the end by about a foot. Then attach using molten iron.

The feet were going to sit at an angle, which meant cutting and filing to match the support beams. It was back-breaking work, so once Gobber had all of the square pieces we needed, he and I took turns at shaping the feet.

Soon, a collection of support beams began finding their way outside the forge, ready for placement. Five perches total.

I knew I wanted one beam near the great hall. Another one was gonna be near my house (the chief and his son should get at least _some_ privileges, right?). The other three were gonna be spaced throughout the plaza. Far enough apart so the dragons wouldn't argue over which was the better perch.

We started in the plaza, digging holes in the ground and securing each foot with large rocks on either side. In my plans I had made sure to keep the perches somewhat out of the way so that people wouldn't accidentally collide with them.

After spending the morning arduously shaping the beams, it was nice being able to use dragons to make life a little easier. And quicker. It was easy, knowing two dragons would suffice for each piece of metal. They could generally get two complete perches done before tiring. We only needed long pieces of rope, and they figured out what to do. Just hang on while riders guided them to the right spot.

Getting the perches set up took the better part of an hour. Getting dragons _on_ them, however, was a different story. Perhaps Toothless could show them.

I put the tools I had used back in the forge. Exited and found Toothless sitting on his haunches, looking at me expectantly. He was well-trained, not only because he knew not to be in the forge when nobody else was around, but also in the looks he gave me when he wanted something. Right now, he was asking for attention. With that expression, I was pretty sure I couldn't say no.

I strode up to Toothless and scratched him gently under his chin. He murmured in happiness, his eyes shut.

"I need your help, Toothless," I said to him after he came down off his little high. Obviously, he didn't understand what I was telling him, so I sidled toward his back. He got the message pretty quickly and got down on all fours, letting me climb onto his saddle. I clicked into the stirrup. And Toothless lifted off without any hesitation.

I directed him to land on the perch closest to Astrid, where he would be visible to everyone, including most of the dragons we had roaming around town.

Toothless landed on the crossing beam, but seemed to have some trouble keeping his balance. Maybe Gobber and I could come back and weld the crossing beams to the supports. I saw the crossing beam wobbling in its cradle. Toothless probably felt it too because he was grunting in concentration, trying to keep his footing. It didn't take long for him to put his front paws on the top of the cradle, giving him a three-point contact with the perch.

He immediately relaxed and looked over the town. I knew he was in his comfort zone because he was completely still, knowing he didn't have to fight for balance. Toothless had a view of pretty much the entire town. Even a little bit of the forest to the east. He rumbled contentedly, gazing around.

"Really?" someone shouted, taking some of the moment away from us. "After what happened two nights ago, you're just going to let him rule over Berk?" It was Mildew.

Toothless and I glanced down at roughly the same time to find Mildew with a few more people around him. There were maybe five or six Vikings glaring up at us with that loathing expression Mildew had perfected.

"You have no idea how much trouble you're causing, boy," one of the Vikings said to me. I didn't recognize him, so I had no idea what his thoughts on dragons were before Mildew brainwashed him.

"Do you _really_ want Thor's anger here?" another shouted.

"Maybe he does," Mildew said to no one in particular. "Maybe he doesn't believe Barnstadt was real."

"Oh, Barnstadt died a horrible death that night," one of Mildew's cohorts said with an obvious nod.

"And the same thing's going to happen to you and your Night Fury, boy!" Mildew shouted. His little group murmured in assent. "I still don't understand why you're letting the 'unholy offspring of lightning and death itself' live here. There is no place for that dragon in Berk."

"Where do you suggest I take him?" I asked daringly.

"Some other island that isn't called Berk!" Mildew shouted back.

I shook my head, not saying anything. It was pointless to argue logic with Mildew. Yes, I could have said Toothless can't fly without me. But Mildew would have spun that argument to his advantage.

"No? What's it going to take, boy? Do you need to see Freyr's Light to be convinced? Or perhaps Thor himself again? I'm sure he could make a visit like he did with Barnstadt!"

I continued staring at him. I seriously thought both the idea of Freyr's Light and Thor visiting Berk were myth. They sounded a little too made up, if you asked me. The masts of ships glowing with an eerie light? How does that even happen? And don't even get me started on a "ball of lightning."

"I'm warning you, Hiccup. Don't be so confident that your dragon is safe from the thunder god. After tonight, I'm sure you'll be begging for him to be shipped off somewhere else."

"Since when did you become a prophet!?" I shouted down to him.

"I'm not," Mildew said. "But after seeing what happened in the last two days, I think Thor will have to take a step further to convince you."

I rolled my eyes at him with a frustrated sigh. This was getting too stupid to continue arguing with this louse. And it didn't help that his group had gained ranks in the last few minutes. I counted fourteen people now.

Without saying a word, I decided to end the argument because it was getting late. And it looked like another storm was on the horizon. But ending the argument would mean Toothless had to get off the perch. I knew if Toothless simply jumped down, the group of Vikings would have a field day injuring him…or worse. But running or flying away was weak, and Mildew would certainly take advantage of it. But the decision was made for me anyway. Toothless's life was way too valuable. There was no way I was gonna just play around with something that serious. So I compromised. I had Toothless jump down and land about fifteen feet away from the villagers. And we were between them and my house.

As soon as Toothless righted himself, I turned him around. He growled because the group was approaching us at walking speed. To me, that meant they weren't going to kill him, but they were going to beat him senseless to teach him a lesson. Toothless's growl turned into a threatening snarl as they approached, undaunted.

The group couldn't get any closer to me because my dad strode between them and us, facing Mildew's little group. I couldn't see his expression, but I had a good idea of what he was thinking. The tone of his voice told me everything I needed to hear.

"Do _not_ threaten my son or anything having to do with him," he said sternly.

Immediately, they stopped. "All right," Mildew said. "_Don't_ do anything about that Night Fury. Maybe you should wait until Thor starts targeting innocent people before you consider getting rid of that dragon."

"Enough!" my dad shouted. Everyone in his little group winced, including Mildew. And Toothless. "Go back to your homes because there is nothing more to see here. And if you want to continue fighting this battle, be prepared to start skipping meals."

Everyone except Mildew shrunk back slightly. They knew what that meant. Mildew, however, still had that same defiant expression on his face. Maybe because he was gaunt to begin with. He held eye contact with my dad for several seconds before sighing and slowly walking away. As his group dispersed, he shot a sideways glance at me and Toothless.

I walked Toothless indoors, followed by my dad. Gobber was already there with his prosthetic tankard. I knelt and hugged Toothless tightly around the neck, hoping I could protect him within the next few days. Not from lightning or thunder. But from Mildew and his little army.

"Hiccup, you don't have to worry. As long as Toothless is on Berk, I'll help you protect him."

"I will too, Hiccup," Gobber chimed in.

I sighed, relaxing my arms. Toothless moaned softly, pushing his snout gently into my chest. "Thanks," I whispered to the three of them.


	5. Chapter 5

"Oh, come on, Hiccup. You and Toothless will be fine," Gobber said. "Besides, I think the perches are probably your best idea yet." He took a swig from his prosthetic tankard and grunted in disgust, his eyes wide in surprise. Immediately, he removed the mug from his lips and spit whatever he was drinking back into its container. "Gods, that was bad. I think it's about time to check on moving the well again." Gobber shuddered. Whatever he nearly took a swallow of must have had a hysterically bad taste.

My dad looked into his own tankard and his eyebrows rose slightly. "Um, yes, I think that would be wise," he concurred.

I looked at the two of them from the floor, one of my arms still draped over the back of Toothless's neck. I had no idea how we were gonna be "fine." Toothless rubbed his head gently against my chest with a low grunt, asking for more attention. Just like usual, I gave in and scratched the top of his head. Toothless rumbled, sending a soft vibration up my left arm. I smiled at him.

"Hiccup, just think of what we can accomplish now that the perches are in place!" Gobber said excitedly, apparently getting over his shock about the water. "We could build new stables or reinforce the roofs with iron! It's like you've opened an entirely new way for us to help the dragons."

"Give it time, Gobber," my dad told him with a short laugh. "Berk is still for people, you know."

Toothless perked. At first, I thought he was reacting to what my dad just said. But then reality took over, and I realized Toothless probably didn't comprehend that. He was reacting to something else.

"Yes, he just said that," Gobber told Toothless. Toothless simply looked at him, probably because he realized Gobber was directing his speech to him. "Hiccup, why is your dragon so concerned we're gonna kick him out of Berk?"

"He…what?" I stuttered. "He's not. Why are you asking that all of a sudden?" Gobber started worrying me. I thought he was in Mildew's growing camp. And Gobber was probably the second-most tolerant adult here when it came to dragons. The most tolerant was my dad. Mainly because of Thornado.

"Oh, don't tie yourself in a knot," he said, waving his hand at me. "I was wondering why he reacted to your father saying what he did."

"I, uh…I don't think he can understand that," I told him. "I think it was something else."

"Any ideas?" my dad asked. I looked at him blankly and shrugged.

Toothless turned his attention back toward me. His eyes were wide in fear, like he knew something bad was heading this way. Kinda like the thunderstorm we had two nights ago, Toothless's eyes were twitching slightly, unable to focus on anything in particular.

I stroked him gently on his cheek, trying to get him to calm down. But when I touched him, I felt him quivering.

A light patter started, just like two nights ago. I glanced upward, remembering the cover again. Still there, held down by the pitch. No worries. And there were no dragon outlines in the roofs tonight. After Toothless's little demonstration, several Nadders and Monstrous Nightmares we had around Berk figured out the perches were safe.

A low rumble sounded. And it wasn't Toothless. I sighed in frustration, knowing we were in trouble again tonight. Mildew would be working all the angles on this thunderstorm tomorrow, enlisting others to join his cause. My only hope was that the thunderstorm would be mostly rain and not lightning.

I edged closer to Toothless as my dad and Gobber sat at the table. Toothless curled slightly around me, asking for my protection again.

"Is he all right?" Gobber asked.

"We'll just have to see in a few hours," I said. "Depends on what this storm throws at us."

Another low rumble. And the patter of the rain hadn't gotten any louder. I shrugged on the inside, knowing if I even _thought_ about it, we'd be jinxed and the heavens would open up with rain and lightning. To keep my mind off of that idea, I stroked Toothless's head, trying to give him my undivided attention.

A loud crack very quickly ended the possibility of the thunderstorm being mild. The walls of the house vibrated with a bass hum from the thunder coursing through Berk. I just hoped there were no dragons or people outside.

Toothless tensed, ready to dash off at a moment's notice. Another thunderclap from close range made him jump with a shout. And what really scared me was Thornado. He was beginning to show worry, just like Toothless was.

As I glanced toward the covered opening in our roof, a flash illuminated the leather with a dull white glow, just as an explosion crashed into the house. An axe fell off the wall from the vibration, clattering to the ground. Toothless lost any semblance of his composure and streaked upstairs in a black blur. Despite all the commotion outside, I had a plan this time. I was gonna stay with Toothless through the entire storm. I slowly walked upstairs, trying not to show any fear or pain because my ears were ringing again. I found Toothless huddled on his rock, shivering in fright. Shuffled over to him and sat down on the edge of the rock, next to his left front paw. Gently stroked the top of his head.

"It's gonna be okay," I whispered to him. I seriously wanted an arsenal of these kind of phrases, because telling him it was gonna be okay was getting old. And it didn't work either. Toothless was still shivering in fright.

Another explosion from close range. Toothless moaned in fear, inching closer to my left hand. I kept it there. Wanted him to know I wasn't letting him out of my sight. Another explosion. Toothless wrapped his paws around my forearm. His mouth was getting a little too close for comfort to my arm. I knew if another thunderclap sounded (which it would soon), he'd probably bite my arm off.

I slowly removed my arm from his grasp and touched his front left paw. Toothless looked at my hand for a second or two. He was still shivering in fright, but he haltingly licked my hand. He was trying to calm down, although the proceedings outside were too much for him. I just hoped the thunderstorm would end within…

Nope. Another thunderclap, still sounding like it was somewhere within the village. I thought the houses around Berk were going to collapse from the shockwaves. Since we were indoors, I couldn't see what was going on. Not that I wanted to anyway. After what happened two days ago, I figured indoors was a good, safe place for me and Toothless.

But being indoors meant the only thing I could do was huddle closer to Toothless, feeling powerless to help him. And all I could tell about this storm was that the thunder was much louder and more intense than two days ago. Logic told me the lightning must have been closer tonight as well.

Throughout the rage outside, I simply stayed next to Toothless. I didn't pet him or try to reassure him everything was okay. It was futile to try at this point. I only sat next to him, where he could see me, see that I wasn't going to leave him anytime soon.

* * *

I woke up, my legs completely numb from sitting next to Toothless. I took a deep breath and stretched, feeling pins and needles coursing from my toes to my hips. After a few minutes, I started walking downstairs. Toothless grunted urgently, trying to get me to stay with him.

I turned back toward him and said, "C'mon, buddy." I motioned toward the stairs with my head and left shoulder. Toothless simply looked at me, continuing to shake in fear.

I shrugged a little and proceeded downstairs. If Toothless followed, great. If not, he'd have to wait for just a little bit.

I knew today was going to be rough. With all the lighting strikes in the village, we must have lost several houses. And I wouldn't have been surprised if some of them toppled from the thunder. As I opened the door, Gobber asked, "How bad is it?" He was referring to the destruction Thor had wrought upon Berk.

"Um," I stammered. You know that shocked feeling when something completely unexpected happens? "I, uh…you might wanna take a look at this," I said.

Gobber stood up and hobbled toward the door. Looked out. "I…don't…see…anything," he said quietly.

"All the houses are standing," I pointed out. That was what we were so shocked about. You don't just have a thousand lightning bolts rip through a village without destroying _something_. There had to be a house somewhere that was razed.

I didn't want to venture out into Berk, fearful of what I might find there. The village we could see from my house actually looked somewhat peaceful. Maybe not back-to-sanity, but there wasn't any chaos running amok in the plaza.

I looked down at the grass, noting there was only a light sheen of moisture on the ground. It had barely rained, and there was no smoke curling from the village. Maybe Thor had been sarcastically merciful during this storm?

I was about to shut the door when Mildew came hobbling into view. Well, what caught my attention was Fungus bleating about something, which was a common occurrence.

"Where's your father?" he asked bluntly.

"Here," my dad said before I could do anything. He brushed his way past me and said, "What do you want, Mildew?"

"I want to call a town meeting today," he replied.

"And why is that?"

"Because Thor is getting angrier by the minute at us! Did you not see what he did last night?" Without giving anyone a chance to answer or explain about being indoors, he shouted, "Every single lightning bolt hit the perches! I lost count after a few minutes, but it's obvious Thor is saying we shouldn't be supporting these dragons like this. Especially _yours_." He pointed directly at me, trying to single me out.

"Mildew, I thought I already told you not to threaten my son," my dad told him.

"You did. And I'm not threatening anyone. I'm simply telling you what's going to happen if you don't do something about his dragon."

My dad glared at him a little more intensely and said, "Toothless isn't going anywhere. You have no say in what happens to him."

"Your loss," Mildew said cryptically. He continued hobbling toward the great hall.

"Um, Dad?" I said meekly. He turned around and looked at me. I had no reason to be intimidated, but when a Viking twice your size stands at his full height, it's hard not to feel small. "I think someone should keep an eye on what Mildew does in the great hall."

My dad looked at me with a confused expression. "Hiccup, what is he going to do?"

"I think he's, um…he's gonna try to get more people on his side about Toothless."

"And you think they'll believe him?"

"Uh, I think so."

Gobber stood up from the table and said, "Well, what if Thor _really_ isn't happy with us? What if, you know, Mildew is kind of, somehow…well, not necessarily wrong, but…" Gobber trailed off because he liked Mildew about as much as I did. Which was not at all.

"What if he's right?" I said in defeat.

"Well, maybe half-right, or something like that," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, let's play your game. Let's say Thor isn't happy with us for some reason. But I just wanna pretend it's not because of Toothless or any other dragon here. What should we do?"

Without thinking, Gobber immediately responded, "A sacrifice."

"What!?" my dad and I shouted at the same time.

"No sacrifices!" I continued. "I don't wanna kill anything."

Gobber thought for a moment. Before he could say anything, my dad suggested, "A statue? When was the last time we made an offering to Thor anyway?"

Gobber thought again. "Not since Hiccup was born. You know, I think it's about time for something he'll like. And a statue sounds perfect." He beamed, as if it was his own idea.

"Sounds great," I said. "I'll help build it after Toothless and I get breakfast. And a flight."

About two seconds later, Toothless came bounding out of the house, unmindful of Gobber and my dad standing there. I wanted to prioritize my time, not necessarily because of Toothless, but because of Mildew. I had a sinking feeling that I was gonna find him in the great hall, rallying more troops for his cause.

I got onto Toothless's back and glanced toward the great hall. Nobody of interest was filing in, telling me Mildew was already inside. Oh, well. I promised Toothless a flight and I wasn't going to break it, not when he was a dragon.

I hooked in with my peg and we took off for a longer-than-normal morning flight. I wanted to give Mildew enough time to eat a meal and then arrive at the great hall. It was a way to figure out if he had an agenda on Toothless or not. My preliminary guess was that he already had one.

* * *

Toothless landed near the front of the great hall panting slightly because of the flight. He began padding toward the large double doors in the front of the hall out of routine. I quickly dismounted and nudged him to his right. "This way, bud," I told him. Entering through the front of the great hall might have been suicide for both of us. If Mildew really was pushing his agenda, any sight of Toothless wasn't going to bode well for me or my dragon.

Toothless got the message and went in the direction I wanted. We stopped at the back door. "Stay here, okay?" I said. I knew Toothless hadn't ever been through the back of the great hall, which was where we stocked our fish and eels. There was a chance he was trained enough to control himself around food, but there was also a chance he'd go on a feeding spree around that much fish. I hated that I had to tread lightly in my own village simply because of some old coot's idea. But I had to play his little game by his little rules, and if Toothless got a hold of our fish stores, it wouldn't take much more convincing from Mildew about his "true nature."

Toothless sat down on his haunches, looking at me expectantly. He was probably a little curious about why we were at this particular entrance rather than the front. The one he was used to.

I slowly opened the door to the back of the hall and heard Mildew's voice echoing around the interior. "Fan-_tas_-tic," I mumbled under my breath. I slipped in as quietly as I could and grabbed a basket, filling it about three-quarters of the way with fish. I had enough presence of mind to avoid any eels. I closed the lid and put a cooked fish on top for me.

The entire time I was preparing our meals, Mildew was running his mouth about how much he didn't want Toothless here. "…And for those poor souls who were trapped last night in their homes, you can thank that Night Fury for your imprisonment. The Night Fury that the boy keeps here on Berk, the Night Fury that shouldn't be here, the Night Fury that has angered Thor himself!" Several villagers shouted in assent to Mildew before he continued. "And what did Hiccup do to help us? Nothing. If anything, he has only condemned us to our fates by building the perches in the plaza and in front of our great hall. He is allowing the dragons to exercise their rule over Berk, when it should be Vikings who are in charge of this place. Not the dragons. Thor showed us exactly what he was thinking about the Night Fury by striking each of the perches a thousand times over with lightning last night! But if you didn't see it, you would have had to be deaf to completely miss the thunderstorm. I'm sure we all noticed how much louder it sounded last night, am I correct?" More shouting in agreement. "That was Thor shouting to us! Think about it! If the boy and his father won't do anything about the Night Fury, then we need to take care of it ourselves! And if _we_ don't do anything, it's only going to be a matter of time before Freyr becomes involved, or worse, Thor kills someone with a ball of lightning." More shouting, some people looked like they were ready to kill something.

I snapped back to the present tense, remembering Toothless had a meal waiting in my arms. And he was getting hungrier by the minute. I slipped outside and found Toothless looking at me, ready for his meal. I took my fish off the basket and flipped the lid open. Toothless stuck his head into the basket and grunted eagerly, his way of thanking me for a meal. After that, we were silent in our breakfast. Several people passed by, heading toward the docks. Some of them looked in my direction. But they simply turned back to their business as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Thankfully, nobody asked me why I had decided to have a meal outside of the great hall with my dragon.

On this rare occasion, I finished a meal before Toothless. I waited for him to clean out his basket and took it back into the great hall. I sidled around our stack of fish and eels and placed the basket back where I found it. And listened. A Viking not named Mildew was talking, but I couldn't understand what he was saying. Too far away. But judging by the sound of his voice, he wasn't happy about something. I had heard maybe ten words when I recognized the words "Hiccup" and "Freyr's Light." I sighed in irritation, realizing most of Berk was going to turn against me and Toothless soon. It didn't matter if Toothless was perfectly behaved from now on. As long as Mildew was ranting about my dragon and had the weather to back him up, there wasn't a whole lot I could do.

What made my predicament worse was that I was playing directly into Mildew's scheme, and there was nothing I could do about it. Both he and I knew that if I showed myself with Toothless in public again, we'd be marked for death. My only choice was to stay away from everyone and keep quiet. Unfortunately, that also meant it was easier for anyone to spread rumors about me and Toothless. For once, I wished the weather would become agreeable again. I wasn't sure if we had enough time left to wait anymore.


	6. Chapter 6

I led Toothless toward the forge, where black smoke was curling from the stack once again. Gobber was hard at work, but it looked a lot busier in there than normal.

As we crossed into the plaza, I cautiously looked around, trying to gauge whether someone was about to attack me or Toothless. We received a few long stares from people around the center of town, but nobody was trying to kill us. Yet.

Inside, I wondered if Mildew had somehow coached these Vikings to give long, off-putting stares. Before I met Toothless, it was the psychological half of being bullied and jeered at that really got under my skin. I could always handle rumors because I knew within a few days they'd be too bizarre for reality. But when people tormented me because I was Hiccup, I felt completely insignificant. Especially when my dad got too frustrated with my antics and refused to defend me.

Today was no different. I felt like there was a clear box growing around me, and it was getting thicker by the minute. And even though my dad was (hopefully) gonna have my back through all this, I still felt uneasy. I was done trying to defend my reputation. I had grown so used to not having one that it barely mattered to me. But Toothless, on the other hand, was everything I stood for. I was truly afraid that it was only a matter of time before someone attacked him when he was somehow defenseless.

I led Toothless into the forge, where he dutifully sat on his haunches near my little office. Where he'd be out of the way. Looked around, finding Gobber hammering away at something that looked like a large, slightly curved thick sheet of iron. Not only that, Snotlout, the twins, Fishlegs and Astrid were all here with their dragons. And they were just as busy as Gobber, working on something that looked like they were going to assemble it later.

"G'mornin', Hiccup!" Gobber shouted over the din. He stopped what he was hammering on and leaned it against the wall. Hobbled over to me and Toothless. "With their help, it looks like we'll get this done quickly. Maybe even by noon."

"Get what done?" I asked.

"The statue of Thor, of course!" he shouted, as if I hadn't been awake for the last few days.

I glanced around again, noticing everyone was hard at work, even the twins. "How did you get them all here?" I asked.

"Everyone was excited about this. Well, Snotlout, Astrid and Fishlegs knew Thor would be happy about a statue of him."

"What about the twins?"

"Your dad convinced them. And then I promised them they could destroy some iron afterward. It wasn't too difficult, if you ask me."

I grinned slightly, which was the first time since about three days ago I didn't feel very threatened. I had wanted more than two minutes without thinking about my isolation, but my brain decided to shove it to the front of my thoughts once again. I took a deep breath and said quietly to Gobber, "Can I ask you a favor today?"

"Sure," he said without hesitation. He hobbled in my direction as I backed slightly toward Toothless.

"Can you or my dad introduce this statue to the village?"

"Why? Are you afraid it might fall on you? Or come to life?"

I almost said it. In true Hiccup fashion, I almost said, _If that statue came to life, it would have played right into Mildew's scheme_. I stopped myself and blinked. With every bit of self-control I had, I told Gobber my fears about Mildew. "I don't wanna have any mention when you introduce this to Berk. Mildew's on a roll and nobody will stop him."

"Hiccup, for the last time, Mildew won't come anywhere near you or your dragon," Gobber said, trying to brush my concern off again.

"Gobber, really. He was giving some kind of pep talk in the great hall today. There must have been at least forty people listening to him. And half the village is glaring at me every time I show up outside."

He gave a short laugh. "Maybe because they're jealous. You're the only one with a Night Fury, you know."

"Can you not hear me?" I asked him. "Mildew has a bunch of people on his side because Toothless is the 'unholy offspring of lightning and death itself.'"

"I thought we changed that in the Book of Dragons."

"We did. But they don't care," I said, referring to Mildew and his army.

"OW! Hey, I was gonna do that!" Tuffnut shouted all of a sudden. Both Gobber and I turned just in time to see him conk his sister's helmet with his hammer. She hit him in the head. Tuffnut hit her in the head again…well, you know how it went from here.

"Do you need anyone with a hard head?" Gobber asked me sarcastically.

"No, thanks, but I'll keep your offer in mind," I said.

Gobber rolled his eyes and walked over to the twins, who were still pounding each other's head instead of the iron in front of them. They stopped as he said something, but I couldn't hear what he told them.

I sighed as I tried to find something productive to do. At the rate I was going, I was gonna fall ill from worry within a few days if Mildew's lies and deceit kept up. To my left, I saw the design for the statue, so I decided to check on the progress.

Astrid had both of the arms done and was now working on the back of the statue. She had Stormfly use her fire to weld the sheets together, which was kinda messy but it worked. The problem with a Deadly Nadder's fire is that it isn't concentrated into one spot. It's not like Toothless's continuous flame. A Nadder's fire is more like a splashing flow. Naturally, there were some weld marks that weren't on the seam, but I figured it was gonna be fine anyway. They were small enough that you would have had to actively look for them.

"Whaddya think?" Astrid said, turning to me.

"Looks good," I said. I was being honest. She grinned and directed Stormfly to another spot on the metal.

I knew Gobber was working on the statue's head, face and helmet. If he wasn't doing a good job on it, then we were all doomed. I checked Snotlout's work. He was assigned the legs and had very specific instructions on how to assemble all the pieces together. Apparently, Gobber had shaped everything earlier. He must have been working most of the night if he had this many pieces ready.

"Um…" I started. I watched as Hookfang covered part of a leg with a stream of fire. He was actually doing well at keeping it contained, surprisingly. But the leg. "What are you working on?" I asked Snotlout after a pause.

"His legs, can't you see that?" he said in irritation.

"I, uh, think his knee bends the _other_ way. You know, like a knee?"

Snotlout paused and looked at me. Looked at his knees. Raised his right foot and worked his knee back and forth a couple of times before setting his foot back down. "I don't see a difference," he said finally.

Luckily, the statue's foot was pointing upward, so I could do this without too much trouble. I pulled up a chair and raised my right leg forward, mimicking the position of the foot. "Like this," I said, bending my knee, which brought my foot downward.

"Hang on, lemme try this," he said. I stood up, and Snotlout sat down. He raised his right foot like I did and bent his knee. "So, does this mean I'll have to, like, break my knee so that it bends correctly?"

I was tempted to answer _yes_, but I had a feeling Snotlout would take it literally. "No. Turn the statue's foot around," I said as patiently as I could.

Snotlout jumped up and turned the entire leg over. "Like this?" he asked, frowning in thought. After a short pause he turned to me and said, "Look, Hiccup. I've never done this in my life. Can you please not tell anyone that I'm slow at this?"

For once, it felt good to be on the receiving end of a Snotlout confession. Those things were few and far in between. "Okay, I promise," I said. "But you'll need Gobber's help with this." I noticed Hookfang had already welded the statue's foot to its leg, so it was up to Gobber to remove it. I didn't have the strength to file out the iron, but Gobber could do it pretty easily.

I turned around to find Gobber staring at us. "Something wrong?" he asked. I beckoned him over. "Why do you need me he…Why is the foot backwards?" Gobber asked, switching topics quickly.

"Can you help Snotlout get it on correctly?" I asked, somehow keeping a perfectly straight face throughout all of this mayhem.

Gobber glared at Snotlout, but he sat down and began filing into the weld, slowly prying the two pieces apart. I began walking toward Toothless as Gobber said, "Look here, Snotlout. The foot points in the same direction as the knee. Now make sure you do the _other_ leg correctly, or you get to fix it yourself."

I sighed as I approached Toothless. This was a losing situation. I knew we still had a couple of thunderstorms to get through for the summer. They usually lasted for about two weeks, and we had only seen about three or four days of rain and lightning so far. So bad weather, that was a given. Somehow, Mildew was gonna find a way to misconstrue everything about this statue and how I related to it. If I didn't take any credit, he'd blame me and Toothless for not doing enough to appease Thor. If I took even a smidgen of credit for this, he'd blame me and Toothless for not doing a good enough job to appease Thor. And I just _knew_ he was gonna be harping on this as long as anyone would listen to him.

"Okay, good!" Gobber said, catching my attention. "Let's get everything together. We'll start with the legs and trunk."

Snotlout dragged the legs he fashioned (both of them were jointed correctly, by the way) out of the forge, where he met with Gobber. Snotlout directed Hookfang to weld the seams between the legs and hips together. It certainly seemed easier to use a dragon's fire rather than dripping molten iron to weld pieces of iron together.

"Astrid, bring the arms," Gobber instructed.

Gobber had shaped one of the arms to stick outward with its hand in a "stop" gesture, while the other held an axe across its chest. I was impressed by the amount of detail Gobber had put into the statue, because the axe looked sharp enough to slice a finger with it.

As Gobber held the arms in place, Hookfang went to work again welding the joints together at the shoulders.

I watched as Gobber marched back into the forge and grabbed the statue's head. He held it in place on the neck as Hookfang welded it. All told, it took maybe fifteen minutes to assemble the statue. Without dragons, it would have taken probably two hours at my guess.

I watched as the team placed ropes underneath the statue's arms and covered it with a large cloth. Hookfang and Stormfly went airborne, bringing the statue to its feet and carrying it toward the central plaza.

Mildew could say what he wanted, but I was certain dragons made our lives easier. This statue was a prime example of why.

My dad must have heard all the hubbub in the plaza. He was at Snotlout's house, conversing about something with Spitelout, Snotlout's dad.

My dad walked out and saw the statue covered in a large cloth. Mildew was already in the plaza. And I was watching from near the forge. Staying generally out of sight.

"Stoick, if this is what I think it is, it won't help us one bit with Thor," Mildew stated preemptively.

"And you know what Thor is thinking because…?" my dad shot back.

"I don't," Mildew replied. He and my dad left their conversation at that, although I saw an expression on Mildew's face that said he had more verbal attacks coming. He looked like he was waiting for the perfect moment.

"All right," my dad said to everyone who was present in the plaza. There were maybe fifty people here, so pretty much the entire village would have the message by tonight. "After thinking about the weather that has been happening for the last two days, we think it's time to make another offering to Thor." There was a murmur in the crowd, but it sounded neutral. Nobody seemed angry. Yet. "Some people will say Toothless is the reason for all this weather. But think about past years. Each year in the summer, we have about two weeks of thunderstorms. They happen, and there's nothing we can do about them. I am confident that this offering to Thor will help us get through these thunderstorms without any further problem."

With that, he and Gobber team-pulled the cloth off of the statue. Standing at its full height, it was about fifteen feet tall. I thought Gobber and the rest of our dragon-riding group did a great job at putting this together.

"That's it?" Mildew said.

"That's it," Gobber repeated.

"Thor will be outraged! This statue's face doesn't even _look_ like Thor!"

"Ah," my dad said, pouncing. "So you're immortal?"

Mildew stopped in his tracks and looked at my dad quizzically. "What?" he said.

"I'm simply asking how you know exactly what Thor looks like."

"What do you mean?"

"How did you see Thor's face and live?"

A pang of realization shot through Mildew's face. "I…uh…never have. But it would take a fool to not realize this statue isn't made in Thor's image."

Mildew was trying to figuratively saddle a yak. Both my dad and Gobber knew it too. They crossed their arms at about the same time and looked intently at Mildew, daring him to continue. In my little corner, I smiled wickedly. Mildew was about to lose some followers.

Mildew gathered his thoughts and said in a low voice to my dad, "Tell me, Stoick. How much of this did Hiccup contribute?"

My stomach dropped. Whatever followers Mildew had lost, he was gonna get them back tenfold. He must have been watching what was happening in the forge, seemingly knowing exactly what I did and where I was. And he probably knew my dad wasn't anywhere near here this entire time.

"I wasn't at the forge," my dad said calmly. "Ask Gobber."

"All right then," he said, turning to Gobber.

Before Mildew could say anything else, Gobber said, "Hiccup did what he needed to, and that's all you're gonna hear. All of the dragon riders helped today, not just Hiccup."

I sighed in relief.

"I think you should have left Hiccup out of this. I have a feeling that because of his involvement, we just might see Freyr's Light during the next storm." A few people in the crowd around them gave a short gasp.

_Please don't be right_, I thought as hard as I could in Mildew's direction.

* * *

"Stay here, bud," I said to Toothless. I didn't want to take him to the great hall again, not with another storm approaching. This time, I saw the lightning flashing from a distance, but I never saw any actual bolts. Everything happened within the clouds.

I trudged to the great hall by myself. Entered in the back again, trying not to arouse any suspicion. Kinda like when I was keeping Toothless a secret. I grumbled slightly, feeling the anxiety all over again. I didn't want to repeat those days because it was too stressful. And here I was, worrying myself sick over Toothless's welfare all over again.

I grabbed a basket and started filling it with fish for Toothless. Thankfully, supper had already come and gone for me. I wasn't hungry anymore.

I closed the lid just as a Viking I didn't recognize grabbed my hand. "You've taken enough fish already. We're running low on food, so leave that basket here."

I turned and looked behind myself, noticing about a five-foot high pile of fish and eels. I didn't want to deal with this at the moment. Even when all this pressure was around Berk, Toothless still needed to eat. "Okay, how 'bout this?" I started. "I'll be right back, and you can talk to my dad about this."

He paused for a second and nodded. Let my hand go. "Make it quick," he said.

I nodded and took the basket with me. As I left the great hall, I rolled my eyes for two reasons. First, I couldn't believe how easily I had duped that Viking. Second, and more importantly, a light rain was beginning to fall again.

Several diffuse flashes of white were painting the sky, but there were no lightning bolts yet. Kinda like what I saw earlier today. I looked at the statue of Thor in the plaza, knowing I'd have to walk past it to get back home. And dropped the basket of fish in disbelief. I froze on the spot, completely transfixed.

The horns of the statue's helmet were what caught my attention. The tips of them, in particular, stopped me dead in my tracks. Both tips had what looked like a purple-white glow to them, like they had somehow caught onto a diffuse ball of light. I blinked, making sure I wasn't seeing a hallucination.

I gulped when I realized what I was staring at.

Freyr's Light.

_Not good_, I thought. I quickly scooped up the basket and hurried my way home, just as the tips of the statue's helmet began shooting out an occasional miniature lightning bolt. Each time it happened, there was a soft crackling sound in the air, but the lightning coming from the statue never did anything except for reach out a couple of feet then disappear.

I slammed the door open, startling Toothless. He gave a short roar of surprise as my dad jumped slightly in his chair.

"Hiccup! What was that for?" he shouted.

"Oh, man, I am _so_ dead!" I stated. He looked at me with a puzzled expression. "It...it's the statue," I continued.

He glanced out the door, where the upper half of the statue was clearly visible from about two hundred feet away. And there was no mistaking what was happening around the horns, not even from this house.

In my preoccupation with Freyr's Light, I had forgotten to open the basket. Luckily, Toothless was able to tip it over. He was maybe halfway through his fish when I saw him.

"Oh, gods, this is bad," I said to no one in particular.

My dad shut the door and looked at me. "Hiccup, pull yourself together. What makes you think you're in trouble?"

"You didn't see Freyr's Light on the statue?"

"Yes, I did, but how does this have to do with you?"

"Almost everyone in Berk is gonna believe Mildew now! How in the world did he predict what was gonna happen tonight!? Now he'll stop at nothing to get rid of Toothless!"

My dad was about to say something when a loud thunderclap echoed throughout the village. Toothless tensed, trying to anticipate the next strike. As I looked out through the doorway, I saw a single roof smoldering. Couldn't tell whose it was. I only knew that I had to get Toothless to safety. Somehow, I had to get him away from the village after the storm ended.

I turned toward Toothless as another thunderclap sounded. He bolted upstairs to his rock again. I followed, knowing as long as this weather kept coming, Mildew would become more confident. And more validated.


	7. Chapter 7

I had a hard time believing this was only a thunderstorm. I almost felt the electricity crackling through the air. I huddled with Toothless, who was only getting more frightened by the second. And even after several thunderstorms this week, I still had no idea how to calm him down.

Through the doorway, Freyr's Light seemed like it was getting more intense. From my house, I saw the streamers of lightning arcing out from the statue's horns. They still never connected with anything, but they were constantly feeling around, searching for something to strike.

The lightning and thunder were so frequent I couldn't tell one bolt or thunderclap from another. It was a constant low rumble punctuated by the occasional cloud-to-ground strike and a sharp explosion. Several times, the lightning hit the statue's horns. And as for that roof that was smoldering earlier, the smoke was gone. It was raining just hard enough to put out fires, but not enough to limit visibility.

I looked at Toothless, who was shuddering just behind me. Like I was gonna protect him from what was out there. After what we had been through this week, I wasn't sure if we were gonna survive another night on Berk. It didn't matter about the weather at all. Mildew and his cohorts had seen enough to justify killing Toothless. They didn't want a repeat of what happened to Barnstadt all those years ago.

Because of my fear about Toothless, sleep wasn't gonna happen tonight. I was gonna wait for the storm to pass and then leave Berk with Toothless and a small amount of supplies that would keep me alive for about two or three days. Then Toothless and I could survive on our own. And who knew? Maybe I'd get a hold of Trader Johann and become a nomad like him. Then again, maybe not.

Through the open doorway, I was keeping an eye on part of Berk. Making sure nobody came after me and Toothless. My dad was helping shepherd most of the Vikings into the great hall, so it was just me and my dragon for a while tonight. Gobber was helping my dad, Astrid was with Stormfly and Fishlegs was in the great hall, as far as I could tell. At the current moment, I didn't trust anyone else enough to help keep me company.

"What do you think Freyr's Light means, bud?" I asked Toothless out of the blue. It wasn't like he was gonna answer anytime soon, but it helped keep my mind away from Mildew.

Toothless grunted and crept closer to me, wrapping slightly around my back. I felt him shivering as his wing brushed against my arm, followed by his side against my back.

"I thought so too," I said. And I had no idea what I was agreeing to. Couldn't speak Night Fury. But I understood Toothless was scared again. And I was gonna stay with him no matter what. I reached out and gently stroked Toothless on the top of his head. He pushed into my hand, as if my attention was gonna keep him safe from the storm out there.

I sighed, wondering how long it was gonna take this storm to leave.

Through the rain and constant flashes of lightning, I watched as a lone Viking ran across the plaza toward the great hall. Like he or she was late for something. I shrugged, not thinking anything of it. Right now, I was more worried about the example I was setting for Toothless. Not only was this storm unnerving to me, I was also scared about when Mildew and his group would attack Toothless. Not if.

After what seemed like an hour, the lightning was still flashing occasionally, but there was little-to-no sound. It was too far away. All I heard now was the constant patter of the raindrops falling on Berk.

I stood and shuffled toward the doorway, trying to gauge whether the storm was finished or not. The sky was still painted with flashes of dull white. Occasionally there was a low, quiet rumble. But Freyr's Light was still dotting the horns of the statue.

I put my hands on my hips and asked the air in front of me, "_Really?_ That's it?" Toothless grunted at my sudden change of expression. Freyr's Light had simply appeared and…well, that was it. I craned my neck to look around outside. We had a few fir trees dotting the island. And as fate would have it, there were small dots of light on the tips of their leaves as well. So Freyr's Light simply appeared, did its business and left.

My mind automatically started whirring, trying to connect Freyr's Light to what it appeared on. The horns of the statue. Fir leaves. And, from what I had heard, ship masts. Why only those three things? Just to make sure, I glanced back toward Toothless. No points of light on him.

Masts, horns and fir leaves. Masts, horns and fir leaves…

Pointed objects.

That was it. Anything with a sharp point could host Freyr's Light.

A sudden lightning bolt snapped me out of my thoughtscape. It struck the perch near the great hall, sending a massive thunderclap throughout the village. I reflexively covered my ears and groaned slightly. Toothless screeched and backed away, but didn't run upstairs. But what surprised me was what it did besides hit the perch. The bolt jumped from the perch to the doors leading to the great hall. It disappeared as quickly as it came.

I had no idea what the lightning bolt did after hitting the doors. Couldn't tell if it tore a hole in the wood or not. I let my eyes clear for a few seconds after that surprise. Blinked a few times.

"Oh…gods," I mumbled. "Oh, no."

Resting on top of the perch was a new ball of light, just like Freyr's Light, except for one thing.

It was moving. Not only that, it was drifting through the air, unmindful of the wind and rain.

I watched in horror as the ball of light headed straight for the doors of the great hall and disappeared without a trace. Seconds later, the doors burst open with a flood of panicking Vikings running away from where the ball of light had entered.

"EVERYBODY GET TO YOUR HOMES!" my dad shouted. People ran through the rain to get to their houses. Maybe they'd be safer there, even though they were generally closer to the perches.

A low _whuff_ sound to my left caught my attention. I knew it wasn't Toothless because he was behind me. I turned to look and saw a ball of light inside the house.

Toothless screeched again, trying to escape. Panic was gripping his mind, and he crashed headlong into the wall behind himself, collapsing with a long, painful groan.

I stood in shock, unable to form any words or sounds as the ball of light floated lazily in the air between me and Toothless, who was probably unconscious.

The ball, which was maybe the size of my fist, hovered silently in the same general spot for a few seconds before disappearing with a loud _crack_. The sound ripped through my chest like a shockwave and left my ears ringing in pain. I was breathing in short, shallow gasps, my eyes darting aimlessly around the house, unable to focus on anything in particular.

From outside the house, I heard someone's voice. "Hurry! Thor's going to destroy Berk if we don't kill the Night Fury now!"

Hearing him brought my mind back to the present tense. I glanced around the house, finding nothing out of place, except for Toothless. He was still lying in the same position as when he collided with the wall. I sprinted toward him, hoping he'd wake up within the near future. Before the horde of Vikings arrived.

"Do you think the dragon's in here?" another voice asked, just on the other side of the front door.

"Toothless, c'mon bud," I pleaded, kneeling by him. I stroked his cheek gently, trying to let him know I was still here with him. "Wake up. Please, wake up." Nothing. This was bad, and it was only getting worse. Toothless had no way to defend himself, and an angry mob of Vikings was just outside.

Behind me, I heard the door creak open. My stomach dropped to my feet when I heard someone tell his cohorts, "Get the boy out of the way."

I stood, ready to face Toothless's and my fate. I decided that if they were gonna kill Toothless, they'd have to kill me too.

"Move, Hiccup," a Viking told me. I didn't recognize him. Didn't matter if I did or not. I stayed firm.

"No," I said quietly, making direct eye contact with him.

"I said _move!_" He lunged in my direction, shoving me to the ground. He grabbed Toothless by the saddle and yanked upward. Toothless didn't budge. "Let's get this dragon to the plaza and kill it so that Thor can see." He pulled upward again. Same result.

Somehow, through a miracle, nobody else seemed bent on dragging Toothless out to the middle of town. Maybe they didn't count on the fact that a Night Fury was too heavy for one person to handle? I looked up at the Viking tug at the saddle with a confused look on my face. I had no idea what to think all of a sudden. This entire week, Mildew had been talking people up about ostracizing me and killing Toothless. And now, it seemed like there wasn't a plan at all.

"Can I get some help!?" the Viking pulling at Toothless shouted.

I heard another pair of feet approach me from behind. Mildew grabbed me by the arm and pulled me upright. "Since the dragon won't go with us, we'll have to do this here. You won't want to be here for this," he said eerily. As irritating as Mildew was, I had another reason to dislike him. His breath was as fetid as his appearance. Toothless was still lying on the floor, not moving.

"Oh, gods," I mumbled. "No…No. NO! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

In a split second, Toothless leaped into the air and tackled the Viking working at his saddle. He must have realized I was in danger, because I knew Toothless would do anything to protect me. He snarled as he slammed the Viking's head into the floor, knocking him unconscious. Looked in my direction. Roared in anger. And lunged forward.

Mildew stopped dragging me out of my house, yelped slightly and tried to use me as a shield, wrapping his right arm underneath my own. So much for honor, respect and nobility. Toothless stopped short and roared at him again. Each time he tried to get an angle of attack, Mildew pulled me between them.

_Not my dragon,_ I thought. _Not Toothless_. I had that fluttering feeling in my stomach because a crazy idea just hit me. I knew if it didn't work, I was pretty much dead. But after seeing Toothless do so much to protect me again and again, I figured it was about time to return the favor. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, waiting.

I felt Mildew pause, trying to pay attention to Toothless. I brought my peg straight up with a grunt, like I was going to kick my own back, except Mildew got in the way. I felt the dull thud as my peg connected with his groin. Mildew screamed in pain and agony, bent in two and fell over, releasing his grip on my arm.

Two things happened at once as Mildew collapsed and curled up on the floor. I ran over to Toothless as several of the Vikings just outside my door shouted for revenge and lunged toward us.

"GO, TOOTHLESS! JUST GO!" I ran over to the back entrance and opened the door for him. It was still raining, but we didn't have a choice. Toothless sprinted out, and I followed. Got on his back. And we took off, heading away from Berk. I knew Toothless was worn out, but we had to get off this island now. Maybe forever. Probably forever, considering what I did for my dragon. My dragon, who was the bane of some peoples' existence for this week.

Rain and tears were burning my eyes as I thought about what had happened recently. All because of someone's stupid idea. And it resulted in two injured Vikings, plus anyone else affected by the storms.

"Just keep going, buddy," I instructed tersely. The first island not named Berk was my destination.

There was an occasional diffuse light burst in the clouds, telling me the thunderstorm wasn't quite finished. I had noticed the lightning tended to strike the tallest object nearby, but I had no idea why it favored the statue and perches when only fifty feet away there were trees that were closer to the sky. I didn't have time to think about that now. My only plan was to fly somewhat low. What made this flight really scary for me was that Toothless and I were the only object around. Sure, there was an occasional rock spire jutting out of the ocean, but that was it. And if we were the only thing around, that meant we were the _tallest_ thing around. I hunkered down in the saddle, as if I was now protected from any lightning bolt.

"C'mon, buddy. You can do this," I whispered. Toothless was beginning to tire. He was drawing long, painful gasps as he flew forward. Thankfully, I saw an island in the distance, which quickly became our destination.

"You can make it," I repeated to him. "C'mon, Toothless."

The island was beginning to grow steadily larger. As we got closer, I noticed it had a jagged spire of a mountain in the middle of it. Dragon Island. I shrugged on the inside. There were worse places to be for a night.

Toothless and I were maybe fifty feet away from the beach when time seemed to stop. A foreboding feeling shot through my body just as the texture in the rocky beach revealed itself. A blindingly bright white flash illuminated the area. Toothless seized violently, nearly throwing me off his back just as my ears went deaf. I knew something incredibly painful had just happened to me and Toothless, but as the beach slowly became larger, my vision and mind faded into blurriness.

Toothless crash-landed on the rocky beach, throwing me from his saddle. Time was still moving at a snail's pace as I tumbled slowly across the beach. I heard nothing and felt even less as I skidded to a halt.

I ended with my face down in the rocks, struggling to breathe. I couldn't move anything on my body. My peg even seemed like it was hurting, although I couldn't feel anything at all. I groaned slightly, not hearing a sound. Tried to move. Every joint felt like it was made out of jelly. Nothing would bend correctly.

As I slowly got to a crawling position, I saw a blurry figure shrouded by rain along with a few diffuse points of light.

I crawled forward, wincing every movement along the way, even though my hands and knees felt nothing. As the shape got larger, I saw a wing and a tail. A saddle came into view not long after that. It was Toothless, lying motionless on the beach. I reached out to touch him and collapsed. My sense of distance was completely gone after whatever it was threw us onto the beach.

I struggled back up and continued crawling until my head bumped into his wing. I heard an echoing _whoosh_ as I pulled my head back. It felt like the wing had set my hair on fire. The rain even stung fiercely where it fell on my skin or clothes.

I looked to my right and saw Toothless's tail. The red prosthetic fin was completely gone, like someone had cut it away. I forced my vision to focus and saw something even more horrifying.

The metal rod that held the fin in place was fused to his skin. Like something had melted the two and pushed them together. Freyr's Light was still there at the tip of the rod, kinda like a beacon. But it never did anything except light up part of Toothless's tail, just so I could have a better view of the carnage.

"Oh, gods," I mumbled for the umpteenth time. Moving like I was underwater, I slowly got to Toothless's head. His eyes were tightly shut, and his mouth was frozen in a painful grimace.

I sat down next to my dragon, overwhelmed by the last few moments. After a few seconds, I realized a lightning bolt had struck either me or Toothless. We were modern-day Barndstadts. Intense thunderstorms, followed by Freyr's Light, then balls of lightning. And to top it all off, Toothless and I were the ones who paid the price for everything.

I stared out into the open ocean. The rain continued to fall. An occasional flash illuminated the clouds above us. And every now and then, there was a low rumble of thunder. Toothless and I were marooned on an uninhabited island, injured and frazzled with no means of survival or escape. And yet, all I could think of was that Mildew got what he wished for.


	8. Chapter 8

Rain was still falling. An occasional flash illuminated the area, followed by a low rumble. And Toothless was still frozen in time. Still in that same position as when he crash-landed on this island. He was lying on his left side, eyes squeezed shut with his mouth drawn into a grimace, like someone was pulling on it with an invisible hook.

I never got up from my sitting position because there wasn't any point. I was pretty sure Dragon Island was uninhabited. From the areas I had explored during various trips here, it was always the same landscape. An unforgivingly jagged experience, completely bereft of any greenery or animals, save for the occasional wandering dragon or bird. But even then, the animals would be gone not long after that.

I looked back at Toothless through the falling rain. From the water that was running down my face, I couldn't tell what was rain and what was tears. It all felt the same to me. And it didn't look like the rain was gonna stop any time soon.

I saw Toothless with his grimace. The stirrup connecting his saddle to his tail fin was blown completely open. Small pieces of it were probably missing. Most of the connections that strung from the fin to the stirrup were nowhere to be seen. And the tail fin was completely gone, like it had been ripped cleanly off the frame. I kept my eyes on the frame, wondering how anyone was gonna get it out of Toothless's skin without causing immeasurable pain to him. If I could trade places with him, I would have done it without a second thought. He didn't deserve to go through something like this. He had saved my life on several occasions, and I never forgot about it. Toothless was my protector, and this was how he was rewarded?

Above everything else though, nothing masked the fact that we were completely stranded here. Nobody knew where we were. Most of the people in Berk probably didn't even know we had left.

_What a way to go_, I thought. My dragon and I were stuck with no food, and the only drinkable water was falling from the sky. That would end soon, leaving us parched.

I thought about what my dad, Gobber, Astrid and Fishlegs were going through right now. And maybe even Snotlout and the twins. They had their own problems with Mildew to worry about. But after he gave up for the night, then what next?

_Where's Hiccup?_ That would be the next question. _Where's Toothless?_ Soon to translate into the following question: _Are they all right?_

The gravity of the situation was what really scared me. I realized very quickly that our only hope of getting off this island was for someone to come to us.

I pulled my knees closer to my chest and looked down at the rocky beach I was sitting on. Pulled in a deep breath with a lot of quavering. The lightning was still creating dull flashes of white, followed by a low rumble some seconds later. The rain was still falling, creating a small pool around Toothless and me…

_When will I hit rock-bottom?_ I wondered sarcastically. When would this situation become so unbearable I couldn't take it anymore? If I didn't do something soon, Toothless was gonna drown. That is, if he was still alive.

My joints still wouldn't obey me, but I didn't have a choice. Slowly, I got to a crawling position and began pushing several rocks toward Toothless's head. I knew I couldn't move him, even on my best days, so my only hope was to get his head elevated and wait the rain out. I removed several rocks with jagged edges and eased my right forearm underneath my dragon's head. Pushed the small pile of rocks underneath his head and set it back down. It looked a little better, with a small island of rocks supporting Toothless's head. It bought me at least another hour or so.

"I'm sorry, bud," I whispered. I had nothing else to tell him. I sat back down next to his head, unmindful of the small pool of water that had been collecting around us. Reached out with my left hand and stroked his cheek gently. He was still warm to the touch, telling me he wasn't dead. I wished there was something I could do for him to make his pain disappear. But just like the thunderstorms we suffered through, I had to watch every second of his torture.

If it was any consolation, when I touched Toothless's face, his grimace lessened slightly. It wasn't very much, but I could see it. For once, I wished I could channel the magic Toothless had. No matter what happened, I always seemed to heal more quickly when he was watching over me. I sighed, turning my attention out toward the ocean. The rain was lessening slightly, but it still showed no signs of stopping. And a light fog was beginning to settle over the island. I knew Dragon Island was no stranger to fog, just like the forest on Berk. It wouldn't take long for the fog to become a seemingly-impenetrable wall.

"We'll get off this island soon, bud. I promise," I whispered to Toothless. Deep down inside, I felt like it was an empty promise. Stroked his cheek again. His grimace receded a little more. At this point, I only hoped that my promise would hold. Hoped that the gods would help us somehow. While we were still alive.

* * *

The rain slowly tapered off, taking the fog with it. The night sky was still pitch black without a star in sight. Clouds which would have been ominously dark during the day were hanging threateningly over us. Toothless was still lying in that same position, although his grimace was mostly gone now. The lightning bolt we took must have really paralyzed him. I felt significantly relieved when I heard him breathing. His breaths were very shallow, but he was breathing. Every time he exhaled, a few bubbles came out of his mouth from the water pooled around him. I knew if Thor decided to send another rainstorm our way, I'd have to figure out how to get Toothless to higher ground.

My pants, boot and shirt were completely soaked through. And the night air was just chilly enough to make it feel even worse than it already was. I sidled closer to Toothless, brushing my left arm against the back of his neck. Hoped he'd regain his consciousness soon. Because I felt scared, alone and hopeless. Not only because we were stranded. But also because Toothless was unconscious. I had only the company of myself at the moment. The feeling of loneliness in the air was so thick I could almost taste it.

In the distance, a small light show was happening. It was to the southeast, which probably meant there was another storm tormenting Berk. In the back of my mind, I hoped it was Thor getting his revenge on Mildew for what he did to Toothless over the past few days. But from Mildew's point of view, he probably thought Toothless was still on Berk somewhere. He'd call out the search party, and they'd go on an island-wide hunt for a Night Fury. After that failed, I knew it wasn't gonna be too long before he started trying to kill other dragons. Maybe as a threat to get Toothless out of hiding. Or maybe out of complete and utter frustration.

I watched impassively as the light show dimly illuminated the pool Toothless and I were sitting in. It was completely silent, except for the crashing waves around Dragon Island, telling me the storm was too far away to be of immediate threat. That was the one saving grace I had because I couldn't come up with a backup plan to get Toothless out of this hollow.

I sighed, shivering as the wind picked up slightly. Inched closer to Toothless, hoping his warmth could help me a little.

"Wake up soon, bud," I whispered to Toothless. "I'm scared."

I had no problem admitting I was frightened to Toothless. He was the one I could always trust to keep my deepest, darkest secrets. I knew he'd listen to me when I was frightened or upset, and he never judged me for it. Never told me I was weak and looked for a better, more suitable, rider. When Toothless was around, I always felt more comfortable because I knew he was gonna protect me. But as long as he wasn't awake, I was on my own. And that scared me more than anything right now.


	9. Chapter 9

Sunrise.

The first reds and oranges were painting the sky with their soft colors. It would have made for a beautiful vista, except for where this vista was.

Dragon Island.

The loneliness surrounding me was so profound that the colors in the sky looked more muted than they really were. I stayed awake throughout the night, unable to sleep. And I wasn't even tired right now, although I should have been. If anything, I was feeling a little nauseous. Couldn't tell if it was from all the worrying or the lightning bolt that struck Toothless and me last night.

Toothless hadn't moved or even shown signs of waking up soon. Occasionally, I heard him exhale, and that was it.

I sighed, trying to get some kind of movement in my legs. My hips felt like they were made out of fused iron. I could have sworn I heard them creaking when I straightened my legs out. My feet dragged slightly through the rocks on the beach. The water that was surrounding me and Toothless like a halo had disappeared. I guessed this beach drained quickly because it was rocky.

I stood gingerly, trying to find my balance. My head was spinning, making the nausea worse. Sat back down and waited for a little bit. Checked to my right to make sure there was nothing that would get mad at me if I vomited on it. I took several deep, slow breaths in an attempt to clear my head. After a short time, the nausea returned to somewhat tolerable.

I tried standing again. This time, I moved a lot slower, making sure I wasn't feeling that sickening wave again. Got to my feet after probably a couple of minutes and looked at Toothless in the strengthening light. Still in the same position, still barely breathing. Tail and support rod still fused together.

_I should just remove that rod while he's asleep,_ I thought. _Toothless might not feel any pain if I do that._ I mulled that idea over in my head several times before deciding against it. I didn't have anything to stop any blood flow if the rod was embedded that deep into his skin. And if Toothless wasn't awake, he'd have no way to take care of himself. Pulling the rod out of his tail would have resulted in his death from blood loss. Logic wasn't the only voice telling me that. After all this sour luck, I wouldn't have been surprised if he _did_ bleed.

I looked at Toothless's face. His grimace was gone, and his eyes weren't tightly shut anymore. Somebody who was oblivious to what had happened to us would have thought Toothless was just sleeping.

"I'm gonna see what I can find. I'll be back soon," I whispered to him. Bent down slowly and stroked the top of his head. I really wished he'd wake up soon. It was selfish, but I'd have someone to share in this loneliness.

I stood and slowly made my way toward the mountain in the center of this island. Walking was challenging enough on its own, considering I had no traction with my peg on the rocky beach. And I was still a little dizzy and nauseous, which made it even more difficult.

The terrain flattened enough for me to start walking around the mountain in hopes of finding something. Anything. I turned left and began easing away from Toothless.

After maybe ten minutes of walking and slipping, I saw a few ominous figures in front of me. I gulped, my heart rate quickening, but pressed on. Maybe there was shelter. Or food. Or water.

As the shapes began to focus, my heart sank. I remembered this place all too well. It was where Toothless and I challenged the Red Death. Where we convinced Vikings to support rather than fight dragons. Where I lost my left leg. I stopped, my eyes beginning to water. I didn't want to have to go through all those memories again. They were bad enough once. And they felt awfully similar to what I was going through now. All I could think of was how Toothless was ripped from me that day in the arena. I remembered how it felt and sounded when I watched that Viking ram him in the back of his jaw. And I remembered feeling how the world was gonna end that day. Several tears escaped my eyes and ran down my face, but I continued forward.

We had six boats here that fateful day. Two of them were somewhat intact. The other four were now leaky messes of wood, thanks to the surf and rocks. There were several rusted weapons just barely out of the water's reach, telling me where the tide peaked each day. The beach was still dotted with six-foot-long sharpened stakes pointing toward the mountain. Toward the crater that the Red Death crashed out of when it attacked.

This place was once an unforgiving home to an entire horde of dragons. Now only ghosts lived here.

I peeked into the first boat that looked intact. It was only a shell of wood. Somehow, the inside of the boat had been removed, like it had been carved out by a large knife. A few rusted swords and maces were sitting underneath about a foot of salt water, giving it a brownish tint.

Heading toward the second boat, I knew supplies probably weren't going to be around. Maybe there was shelter nearby in case we needed it. If nothing else, I could somehow get Toothless over here and we could hide in the crater the Red Death created. Where Toothless was lying, there was nothing to cover us. No entrances into the mountain or natural roofs.

The second boat was listing at a decent angle. Looking inside revealed it to be almost untouched. Probably because it either ran aground or the tide pushed it here over several months. But the hull was almost completely intact with only a few planks missing.

I climbed onto the lower side of the boat and looked into the hold. Several swords, all of them showing at least some rusting. But this area could do for shelter. If I got the weapons out of the way, it just might work.

Even with this shelter though, we weren't any better off just because of protection from rain. Toothless and I were still bereft of food and water. I glanced toward the ocean. East, if I knew my directions. And as my luck would have it, there was another thunderstorm. Flashes of lightning were dotting the sky in the distance, but no thunder reached my ears. I had no idea which direction the storm was headed, but I wasn't going to take any chances with this. Another downpour, and Toothless stood a good chance of drowning in his little hollow.

I sighed, listening to the ghosts and their silent conversations in this graveyard. I decided we'd take shelter in the mountain for the night because it was easier to reach than the hold of a listing boat. I turned around and started back toward Toothless.

_Please, just let someone find me and Toothless,_ I thought. _I want to go home_. I wanted to be sitting at my table in front of a welcoming hearth. And Toothless would be curled up about five feet away from me with his eyes closed but not really sleeping. Just keeping me company, because that was what he did best.

A wing about a hundred feet away caught my attention. It was black, telling me Toothless was still there. I walked as fast as I could on this terrain and noticed he was lying in a different position than when I left him. Either someone got here and moved him or he moved himself.

I neared Toothless, ready to greet him with the usual _Hey there, bud_, but stopped short of him. Instead of a greeting, a choke forced itself out of my throat.

Toothless was in front of me; there was no doubt about that. And nobody was around, so he must have dragged himself here. He was lying on his left side this time, his right side and wing facing skyward. And the skin on his right side wasn't black anymore. It was a mottled dark grey.

Toothless had been lying in that pool for so long that his hide had become waterlogged. Even his face had that same look. I almost couldn't tell where his eye was because his skin was so swollen with water. He was barely breathing, but I had no idea if that was good or bad.

I collapsed on my hands and knees about two feet away from him. The area around him smelled awful. It was that rotting scent, like a week after an animal dies and decay starts its work. Toothless's right side was peppered with small open wounds that looked to be oozing small amounts of blood.

"Toothless, no…" I choked out, as if those words were gonna keep him alive. I sat back on my knees and stroked the top of his head gently. His skin was much cooler than normal when I touched it. "Please, Toothless, wake up," I whispered to him. "Wake up."

If there ever was a time when I wished for a miracle, this was it. Toothless didn't deserve to go through this pain and suffering. Somehow, I just wanted to make his pain go away. Even if it meant trading places with him.

I collapsed with a long groan on my back from exhaustion and worry. This was too much for me to handle. I wasn't sure if I had anything to be grateful for, but I knew Toothless was alive, if only barely. My left hand found the top of his head, and I let my fingers trace over his skin. If nothing else, I wanted Toothless to know I wasn't going anywhere. I might not have been able to protect him, but I wasn't going to leave his side.

* * *

Daytime.

It was cloudy, although the clouds were bright enough to show the time was around midday or so.

Toothless was still in his spot, barely breathing. I guessed I had spent three hours passed out on the beach next to him. And that thunderstorm I was worried about was getting closer to Dragon Island. I still couldn't hear any thunder, but the lightning was definitely closer now.

I sat up with a grunt just as a low swishing sound caught my attention. It was to my left, maybe about a hundred feet away.

I heard a girl groan in frustration as the swishing stopped. It sounded like Astrid. No, it couldn't be. I was hallucinating. Really, why should my fortune smile at me?

"I am going to _kill_ him," Astrid said through clenched teeth. She sounded too real to be a hallucination, so I stood and looked left, hoping she wasn't griping about me.

Astrid and Stormfly couldn't have looked more pleasing to me even if they were bathed in a shaft of holy light and accompanied by Odin himself.

"HICCUP!" she shouted. She took off running toward me. Stormfly grunted in an effort to keep up. Astrid bounded toward me just as I got around Toothless and wrapped me in a hug I wasn't ready for. I collapsed on my rear with a groan, reminded of how weak I was from no food or water.

"You had me worried sick! Don't _ever_ do this to me again…" she paused mid-thought as her eyes lost focus slightly. "And what is that smell!?" Astrid stood away from me and looked around briefly, trying to locate what she was smelling. It didn't take long for her eyes to find Toothless and his mottled grey hide. Astrid stood rooted to her spot, her eyes wide in horror.

I didn't have the energy to get back to my feet for a little while, so I just sat there. Looked up at Astrid and said, "Please, you've gotta help Toothless."

"H-how long have you been here?" she asked slowly.

"I don't know. A day, maybe?"

"What happened to Toothless?"

I took a deep breath, not wanting to go through this again. "Uh, okay. Mildew tried to kill him, so I left Berk with Toothless. We were almost here when a lightning bolt struck him in the tail."

"And it did _that_ to his side?"

"No, I…I think that's from the water. He was lying on that side for a long time while the rain was falling."

Astrid stared at Toothless again. Just like me, she couldn't believe both of us were surviving so much turmoil. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. I watched as a tear rolled slowly down her face. She didn't try to get rid of it.

"Hiccup, I'm…I'm sorry. You should never have to go through this. I feel like I coulda done something to keep Mildew away from you."

I looked down, not saying anything. Mildew or not, Toothless and I were stuck here on Dragon Island with no hope of leaving anytime soon. The only feasible way to get Toothless off this island was by boat.

Astrid took a deep breath as Stormfly shuffled over to us. She moaned softly, telling us she had seen Toothless and me.

I heard Astrid sit down next to me. She put her hand over my left arm. I looked at her, seeing the deep concern behind her eyes. "What can I do?" she asked quietly.

I looked toward Berk, noticing the thunderstorm was inching its way between us and home. "How fast can you get home and back?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Pretty fast. Why?"

"We need food, water and supplies." Astrid looked at me without a change in her expression. It was her way of telling me to continue. "Toothless needs a basket of fish. I need something cooked. We all need water. And bring a large sponge with water for Toothless's side."

Astrid stood up without a second thought. "Anything else?" she asked, like it was nothing to get all of that stuff here. I shook my head without looking at her. Astrid got onto Stormfly's back, and they took off. Leaving me and Toothless alone once more.

* * *

For the better part of an hour, I sat next to Toothless. I kept my hand on his head, letting him know I was gonna be here for him. I told him several times he was gonna be okay, that he was gonna live through this.

Stormfly's wings flapping caught my attention. She and Astrid landed after about an hour of being gone. Stormfly's back was laden with supplies I probably didn't ask for, but I wasn't gonna turn them down. It would have been dumb to try playing the stereotypical Viking when I wasn't sure if I'd live another day without food or water.

"RRRRRGH!" Astrid shouted as she dismounted. "I'm really going to kill him!"

I looked up at her and cringed slightly. Now wasn't a good time for me to see or talk to someone who was irate. I watched as Astrid closed her eyes, trying to get rid of her anger.

"All right," she said with a long sigh. "We've gotta get Toothless under something."

"Anything close?" I asked.

She jerked her thumb in a direction behind herself. "Yeah, there's some kind of hollow in the mountain that way. That storm is moving too fast to wait."

_Great_, I thought. I turned back to Toothless and ran my fingers over his head gently. "C'mon, buddy," I pleaded. "Wake up."

Toothless exhaled deeply with a soft groan. I closed my eyes and sighed in relief. That small groan was the best thing I had heard for several days, if not longer. I continued knuckling over his head, waiting for him to decide.

He groaned again and stirred this time. His right eye barely moved from being so waterlogged, but I saw him try to move his left side.

"You can do this," I said gently. Lifted slightly on his left side in an effort to help him up. Toothless got the idea and groaned again, trying to get himself on his feet. It took him about two minutes, but he eventually rolled onto his front, his legs underneath him. Now all he had to do was stand. His dry side was facing me, so I scratched gently over his neck and flank. Toothless looked at me with his open eye knowingly, like he was thanking me for being there during his darkest hour. When he needed me there for him the most.

"I need a fish," I told Astrid. Seconds later, she was pressing a raw fish into my left hand. I held it in front of Toothless, hoping he'd get the message about having to move. He focused on it and crawled forward, barely keeping his chest off the rocks. "Astrid, tell me where to go," I said.

"Straight back, about fifty feet," she replied. I heard her take Stormfly in that direction.

_That's it_, I thought. I kept eye contact with Toothless, holding the distance between us constant. Didn't want him to give up and become stranded again. He had a noticeable limp on his right side. Every time he took a step, the blood oozed out of his side a little more.

"Keep coming, Hiccup. You're almost here," Astrid told me.

Maybe ten seconds after she warned me, a shadow fell over my eyes. This was the shelter she was talking about. Toothless continued forward, panting slightly from the pain. His open eye was showing way too much effort just to walk.

"Okay," she said.

I held the fish out for Toothless. He crept up to me and gingerly took the fish from my hand. Painstakingly swallowed, then collapsed with a long moan on his front. By the time he hit the ground, I had another fish ready for him. Held it in front of his snout. He went through the same routine, slowly pulling the fish out of my hand and taking his time in swallowing it. There was no initial grunt thanking me for the food, no sense of urgency to finish any part of this meal. I had no idea how hungry Toothless was, so I kept giving him fish at his pace until he decided to stop.

"When do you want your meal, Hiccup?" Astrid said while I was feeding Toothless.

"When I've gotten water to Toothless," I said without thought.

It wasn't much longer until Toothless sighed and wouldn't eat anything else. Before I could say anything, Astrid put a bucket of water at my left knee. I held it in front of Toothless's snout, watching it curl slightly as he smelled what was in front of him. He groaned slightly, lifting his head and began drinking.

Toothless emptied the bucket quickly and lay on his front with a long, low moan.

Astrid must have done this before because she had my fish ready for me. It was lukewarm, but I couldn't be picky about it. I ate in silence, except for the wind and the surf.

"I'm jealous of you, Hiccup," Astrid said, breaking the silence between us.

"Hm?" I asked, my mouth full of fish.

"You picked a really good dragon. I kinda wish I would have been the one to find him."

I didn't know what to say. I put my fish down because I was finished with it and moved toward the sponge and bucket of water. We had several loose-fitting lids around the village that we could use to cover buckets. Made transporting them between islands much easier.

"As long as you're together, Mildew can't stand up to you for very long," she continued as I got the sponge wet.

I scoffed a little at her conjecture. "Well, as long as he has his little group, I don't think we can do very much about it."

"He's losing people left and right. They've been on this huge quest to find Toothless, and they can't. Mildew thinks that Berk is still getting hammered by storms because Toothless is somewhere on the island."

"So they don't believe him anymore?" I asked.

"Most of them think he's gone insane. He's trying to tell everyone that all of the gods are angry at us for hiding a Night Fury, and that's why the storms have been so bad."

"Well, I _am_ hiding a Night Fury, if you think about it," I said, my sense of sarcasm returning. Astrid put her forehead in her right hand and shook her head with a small grin. I paused for a little bit, then asked, "Who were you bent on killing?"

Astrid looked at me and, without missing a beat, said, "Mildew. He thinks he owns Berk now. The people who are still following him have the island locked down. They'll try to kill any dragon they see. And they're not letting your dad be chief."

"How so?"

"They're always distracting him with problems that don't exist. They always say the problems are somewhere away from the village and that they're urgent."

"Does he believe them?"

"Not anymore. Your dad's back to doing his regular job now. He basically ignores them."

I heard a few raindrops splash onto the rocky beach in front of us. I knew this shelter was the best we were gonna get for tonight. And I had someone to share in the isolation I had been feeling for the last day or so.

I sat down next to Toothless's waterlogged side and began dabbing gently at his open sores. Luckily, Astrid thought to bring seaweed with her, so each time I finished with a spot, she laid the seaweed over it. Each time one of us touched Toothless's side, he tensed slightly. I felt like we were going through the same agony as when we removed all those rock shards from Stormfly's feet. But this time, I felt worse. Because it was my dragon in pain.

"D'you think he'll be okay?" Astrid said as we neared finishing with Toothless's side.

I shrugged. "I really hope so."

The rain turned into a wall of water cascading down the mountain and into the ocean. I put both buckets out so that they'd catch rain water for us to drink. It took maybe five minutes to fill them. I brought them back and held one in front of Toothless's snout. He cleaned it out quickly, so he must have been feeling at least a little better. He drank some of the water before taking a deep breath and putting his head on his paws. And quietly fell asleep.

I watched as Astrid stroked his flank underneath his wing. Took a deep breath and said, "Thanks, Astrid."

She looked at me and said, "For what?"

"For caring."


End file.
